Crystallised Ivy
by DarkCrystal666
Summary: Ivy is a young citypet, but, after getting lost in the forest, will anything ever be the same again? Tragic events, mysterious cats, prophecies, and a hidden enemy... Ivy needs to hurry up before her time runs out, or the Clans may just lose to their most dangerous, determined enemy yet. Only one player knows all the rules in this game... STILL BEING UPDATED, SORRY FOR THE WAIT
1. Chapter 1

**So hello guys this is Crystalshine of LightClan. Happy St Geneviève Day (I'm goind to say the French saint day or whatever it's called every time since I'm French and have no idea what the English or American saints are) This is my first fanfic, I don't really care if anybody flames cause it just helps me get better. Also English is not my native language so if I make any mistakes please let me know in a review. I also changed the cats' vocabulary as I wanted to make this story as independent as possible from the actual series, if there's anything you don't understand just ask me in a REVIEW they are the most important thing for the writer, you inspire us to keep writing! **

**Crystalshine-Ivy, say the disclaimer **

**Ivy-I don't wanna**

**Crystalshine-OK you'll say it at the end**

**Read, review, and, hopefully, enjoy!**

**_Chapter 1_**

_ Creeping slowly among thick undergrowth, _Ivy caught up on the unsuspecting shrew, her cream-and-tabby pelt melting perfectly into the arching fronds of fern.

She tried to set her paws down lighter than leaves, but her tail, sticking up straight and swishing in nervous excitement, disturbed the plants over her, and the tiny animal raised its head, looking for danger and turning gradually around to check its surroundings for it. Before its scanning eyes could reach the spot where she was concealed, she sprang as far as she could to try and catch the prey.

"Missed!" She hissed, with a curse.

She had misjudged the leap and the shrew scuttled away to the safety of its hole.

Frustrated, Ivy cursed and gave up the hunt. She stomped off into the bushes, fuming, crushing fragrant herbs beneath her feet, then stopped suddenly. She had heard something. A rustle. But it didn't seem to be coming closer, and she was not in the mood for trying to hunt again, so she quickly lost interest and continued on her way, sure that she was steaming at the ears and not caring a fly's wing about it.

Then she felt something soft brush her nose and wondered, outraged, what had dared to interrupt her fury. She sneezed once and suddenly woke up in her own basket in her Townfolk's kitchen. Her Townfolk's kittens were tickling her with a pigeon feather that smelled as if its owner had been dead, rotting carrion for sunrounds, with high-pitched, mocking sounds of joy.

She knew that they were trying to have fun, but she wished they'd notice how much more she liked it when they hung something in the air and she could chase it.

Ivy was annoyed but she couldn't just scratch the kittens, so she got to her paws and stalked off through the cat flap into the garden. It had drizzled in the night and dew sparkled on every blade of grass, leaf and delicate cobweb that stretched precariously across the empty space between two branches.

She clawed her way painstakingly up a tree that overhung the fence to settle on the post and stare at the emerald leaves that filled the forest. Her Townfolk's den was right next to the woods, and she sat there gazing into the green. She was struck by how beautiful it was.

She had heard tales from her mother, Bella, and other Town cats, about fierce cats who killed others of their species, grew to the size of dogs when they were angry and ate foxes. She shivered, but lifted her chin and puffed out her chest to challenge whatever was out there… watching her, maybe.

Pushed by a sudden urge to see what lay beyond the walls that had encased her for as long as she could remember, Ivy dropped down to the ground. She landed clumsily, fighting for balance by thrashing her tail, and hissing in annoyance. She flicked a glance back at the house. As she hesitated, old Mitten's words flooded back to her mind: "Keep away from these woods youngster. It's crawling with wild cats, badgers, foxes, snakes and other things you don't want to know about."

What was she thinking? The forest? Had she gone crazy? Ivy searched for a route back up the fence, but there was no helpful tree this time to offer an easy path over the wooden wall. There was no way back; the only option was to go forward. She shook her head clear of the old cat's ominous warning and padded into the trees.

Scents from her dream drifted around her, quickly making her feel more at ease. Birdsong came from all sides, briar roses blossomed everywhere and catmint sprouted in the garden of an abandoned Townfolk dwelling.

She dived into it, purring, and rolled around on her back, savouring the smell and crushing the catmint into a sweet-smelling heap.

But an icy chill trickled down her spine as she heard unfamiliar voices not far away.

"I can smell a kittypet, Redtail! And I think it's ruining our catmint patch!" meowed a cat she couldn't see. Someone - Ivy guessed it was Redtail - answered.

"You're right, Dustpaw. I hope you've practised your fighting moves lately."

Suddenly, Ivy heard something hurtling toward her, rustling the crackly undergrowth. It landed on her back and she instinctively unsheathed her claws to fend him off. But her opponent was too strong for her and had her pinned down in heartbeats. Dust-coloured tabby fur filled her vision and she was choking on the cat's pelt. Pain like a fierce forest fire flamed through her as her attacker started pummelling her pelt.

Redtail's voice rang out clearly.

"That's enough, Dustpaw. Let it run back to its Twolegs. It won't trespass again."

"And if it does…" the younger tabby slid out his claws and and showed his teeth in a menacing snarl, and Ivy shivered. She was well aware that this cat was threatening her and she would rather not find out what he would do should she 'trespass' again, whatever that meant.

The other cat let her up and she backed away. The grey-brown tomcat was still growling, his pelt sticking up in aggressive spikes. His tail was slashing through the air as if he wanted to scare her enough, just by looking as if he wanted to claw her tail out, to make her leave without more fighting. Redtail fixed her with unflinching, unblinking, unfazed, amber eyes. Ivy turned and fled.

She raced through the strange forest, noisily cracking twigs beneath her paws. She ran on, snagging her fur on bramble thickets and crashing into trees. She continued for as long as she could.

The tabby expected to see the familiar red walls of the Town rising around her but, instead, cold grey trunks closed in on all sides, imprisoning her. She had surely run the opposite way.

I'll never find my way back! She soon started panicking. How would she find anything to eat? Would she die? She knew that, here, she wasn't home, and that she couldn't take care of herself alone. She wanted to yowl her mother's name. Bella would have an idea what to do. Bella always had the solution to Ivy's problems like, for example, that her Townfolk would not let her sleep in their bed, or that they gave her less tasty food than usual… but this time, would she? Her mother didn't even know where she was!

She couldn't fool herself. Nothing good could come out of this.

She searched and searched for home more desperately every heartbeat. She poked her nose in every bush and every hole, hoping the Town would be on the other side, in vain. She wanted to go on looking, but the sun was going down in a blinding, bloodstained blaze of bright colour, and night would soon come. Ivy had to admit defeat. Head low and tail drooping, she was sure she was truly lost.

**That's it for the first chapter! I'm quite busy but it's still the holidays, so I might even update before I have any views...**

**Tell me what you think in your review!**

**Crystalshine-Ivyyy... *raises a paw threateningly* say the disclaimer...**

**Ivy-I don't wanna**

**Crystalshine-You do unless you'd like to stay in the forest foreve-**

**Ivy- *rudely interrupts Crystalshine* *speaking very fast* Crystalshine only owns her OCs and the plot, the Warriors world belongs to the Erins as well as the cats from the original series!**

**Crystalshine-This A/N is already waaay too long so...**

**Crystalshine and Ivy- See you guys next time!**

**B  
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	2. Chapter 2

**Yaaassssssssss I ****_finally _****managed to find how to update this! Happy St Odilon!**

**Ivy still refuses to say the disclaimer... but that's fine, I'll get another cat that you'll meet very soon to say it. He is... Shuddup, stop saying I nearly spoiled the whole story... My annoying friend Moonshade keeps interrupting.**

**Dappledleaf the Bootiful: Thanks for reviewing and here is your update!**

**On with the chapter! **

Chapter 2

Ivy rose up from the nest of ferns and dirty moss that she had flattened out the day before. It was nowhere near as soft or comfortable as her basket at home, and she ached all over as she groomed the earthy roots and moss scraps out of her fur.

She blinked sleep from her blurry eyes and pushed her paws out in front of her in a long stretch.

Her stomach started growling, so loud that Ivy thought her Townfolk could surely hear it in their house. I should hunt, she told herself.

Her attempt at hunting was disastrous. Her mind, unlike her belly, was not on the hunt, and she kept being interrupted by questions that seemed to come from nothing, and seemed to be about everything.

What's a 'kittypet'? Who were those cats who attacked me? Why did they attack me? Why did they get so angry when I went into the catmint? Don't they want to roll in it too? What does 'trespass ' mean? Why did Dust-whatever keep his claws in? Did he think I couldn't defend myself? In spite of her common sense, which told her that she couldn't, Ivy felt stung and her own claws itched to prove him wrong. She went on wondering: Why did they have such strange names? What are the huge stone hills in the distance? And where is home? The questions assailed her, and she still had not caught anything, even though she had tried.

She quickly spotted a vole that had its head entirely buried under an oak leaf, unaware of the danger lurking close by. It was going to be an easy catch.

She started creeping forward, trying to be as quiet as if she was a mouseling. She was concentrating so hard on not rustling the bracken with her paws that she did not notice a thorny branch in her path.

"Meowowow!" she yowled, voice rising with pain and eyes watering as a thorn was driven deep into her pad.

Too late, she realized that she had scared off the vole, and probably all the prey between there and the Town. An amused purr rumbled behind her and Ivy whirled around, wincing, to see who had been spying on her.

It was a huge black tomcat with one white paw and deep green eyes that glimmered mockingly.

Oh. She would have launched herself at him, claws out, with pleasure, had he not been three times her size, and, surely, skill.

"Do you want a hunting lesson?" the black cat asked, spoiling the positive effects of his offer by adding bluntly, "You look like you need one."

Ivy turned and walked off into the bracken, not even considering the option to gratify his question with just the single word that would answer it : no.

He simply doesn't deserve it, the young she-cat told herself.

As she left, her tail caught on a bramble. The other cat asked her if she needed help. Ivy ignored him and pulled harder on her tail, which was infuriatingly stuck.

"I'll wait for you here, at sunpeak tomorrow, for that hunting lesson!" the tomcat called after her. She didn't bother to reply and pulled harder.

Ivy finally yanked her tail free and stalked away without looking back, not caring about how impolite she was being, because she was persuaded that he had been ruder than her.

Later in the day, Ivy started to think that learning how to hunt was not such a bad idea. She had spent the whole day hunting and had stalked one mouse and a squirrel, but so far, she hadn't caught-or eaten-anything. As well as her poor hunting ability, she still hadn't plucked out the thorn in her paw and it was destabilizing her.

Thankfully, the previous day's attacker had left only bruises.

But could she drop her pride for the sake of a growling belly? Yes, definitely.

She went back to the place where she had made her nest.

She knew she would have to find somewhere better soon and she settled down, trying to persuade herself that this makeshift, dirty pile of twigs and ferns, filled with small stones, was her own warm, dry basket at home, in the Town.

Ivy tugged at the pricker buried in her paw and it came out painfully, followed by a stream of scarlet blood and a slightly sour smell.

I hope I'm not getting an infection, she fretted at the scent. She licked the wound vigorously to make sure and sank her head gratefully down onto her forepaws.

The nest was damp and the sharp-edged pebbles in it stung her. But she didn't care;she was too tired to be kept up by anything, and was soon asleep, twitching and turning because of the loud grumbling from her stomach.

The worries of the suntime shaped into the worries of the moontime, and she dreamed.

Slashing claws, sharp white teeth and snapping jaws invaded her night world. Ivy could scent a strong, metallic odour and realised it was blood. Dark trees, deprived of leaves, surrounded her, and the forest all around was black, uninviting, and frightening. The rays of the sun had never reached these woods. She heard growling and snarling close by and crouched down low to the ground, held her breath and clenched her eyes tight shut, hoping to disappear.

She did not know she was dreaming and she was fearing for her life. The noise grew louder. Ivy shuddered in her sleep. Danger was near.

The following morning, Ivy awoke from her troubling dream, and shivered from the chill. Though the season of Bloom-branch had arrived, the cold of the Bare-branch period that preceded it every season-cycle still lingered in the air until the sun was a couple of snake-lengths over the horizon.

Her stomach was now protesting as loudly as one of the snarling, growling, shiny things she sometimes saw in the Town, racing along hard, black paths.

Before sunpeak, she set off toward the clearing where she had met the stranger, leaving her pride behind.

**And that's it! **

**Crystalshine-say the disclaimer, mysterious stranger**

**Stranger-nope**

**Crystalshine-say the disclaimer or I'll make a fox attack you next chapter**

**Stranger- *looks very scared* Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors (otherwise Ivypool would have all Dovewing's powers)**

**See ya next chapter! No foxes. I promise...**

**B**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Hello there y'all! I was bored so I updated quickly! Don't get used to it!**

**Crystalshine-Moonshade, say the disclaimer**

**Moonshade-ok I'll do it because I, at least, am**

**Crystalshine- *sighs* yeah will you just say it already, I have a surprise for the readers?**

**Moonshade-Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors (if she did Firestar's warrior name would have been Fireblaze)**

**Here is the update! **

_Chapter 3_

_ Would she come? Would she_ not? The big, green-eyed black cat could not decide which he would like least: on one paw if she didn't arrive, he wouldn't have to waste his time on. _But I would miss a great opportunity to impress somecat with my awesome skills!_

He sat down, shuffling to make comfortable, prepared to wait out the afterpeak. He had to be lenient if she was late; she was only a poor lost citypet who didn't know her way around, and who definitely needed help with hunting and looking scary. She was obviously a citypet: the fluffy pelt, the soft muscles that it hid, and the plumpness all showed that.

He would try to give her the basics but she might not understand even that, after all, she was used to the pampered life of softness and warmth that all citypets lead. And she just needed to survive until she found her way back home. She was surely looking for her way back, what citypet would venture out voluntarily?

Suddenly, the ferns on the other side of the clearing rustled.

_She came! I was so sure she'd be late or get lost! She might have some potential, at least._

"Hi", she mewed awkwardly, "I'm here for a hunting lesson…"

Letting out an internal purr, the massive tomcat replied. "Good, it's the right place. I'm Slick. Let's start with the most simple things, for example-" he was interrupted by a huge growl, and stared at her, stopping the flow of laughter threatening to flood out of his mouth as best as he could.

"You seem hungry." he noticed.

"It wasn't me!" the young she-cat protested indignantly.

"Come on, no need to-" Slick cut himself off at the terrified expression that had spread over the other cat's face, and slowly turned around to face the other way. He just had time to think, _why am I always the one who is interrupted?_ before a snarling bundle of red fur and long teeth leapt out at him.

Fox!

Slick reacted quickly as he felt fierce claws rake at his sensitive ears. He pushed up with all his might and heaved the predator off him. As the fox recovered on the ground, he threw himself at it and landed on its shoulders. The fox was heavier and stronger, and managed to stand up with Slick on its back. The cat clung on bravely and tried to claw at its eyes. As the creature whined out its pain he flashed a triumphant glance at the citypet, and grinned at the awed look on her face. But as he was distracted the fox threw Slick off and started toward him with a menacing glare, as if thinking that he had gone too far and it had to take revenge. It pounced on the cat as if he were prey, and to it, he probably was.

Slick had always been taught never to take on a fox alone. He had known from the second that he had been attacked that he wouldn't come out unharmed, however he had never guessed that this animal would fight that ferociously. He should have scented the fox ages ago and left before the she-cat arrived. Now he was up to his whiskers in this self-made mess like in quicksand and it was up to him to get himself out.

The fox started to tear off clumps of his fur and Slick shrieked in pain as an uneven crimson spreading splotch seared across his fur, not caring anymore that the citypet was watching. In a last, desperate effort to spare the young, inexperienced cat the show of watching him get torn apart by the fox, and, mainly, to save his pelt, he brought up his hind legs and pushed as hard as he could, unbalancing his enemy, and got up, wanting to finish this once and for all.

He feigned to leap onto the fox's back but rolled down at the last moment and slithered between the bigger animal's legs, getting up near its hindquarters and swirling around to grip its tail between his teeth.

He gritted his jaws together and tugged as hard as he could.

The fox whined and ripped its tail free, limping off into the woods.

Where had the citypet gone? Two dark blue eyes stared at him from the bushes. Their owner came out, trembling.

Slick tried to act as if the blood welling in the scratches on his belly were no big deal, and he decided to play it casual.

"So, you never told me your name."

"I-it's Ivy. what you did back there…"

"Was nothing. I was going to teach you how to hunt, but since I have a few minor scrapes and bruises I will catch us a mouse each and I will show you what I know of healing." Slick knew he was bragging, but he didn't care.

_Later… _

Slick had posted Ivy well away from his hunting spot; from what he had observed, she had problems keeping quiet, blundering through undergrowth like a dog in a fit.

A squirrel caught his attention, and he dropped into a crouch, stalking it. His tail was lifted slightly off the ground so as not to brush grass or overhanging ferns.

He crept slowly toward it, moving his paws one leaf-length at a time.

Then he pounced.

He straightened, the squirrel grasped between his teeth, sweet prey blood running down his chin, and walked away to fetch the fat mouse he had caught earlier on.

He picked it up, and, satisfied with himself, trotted back to Ivy, hiding a smile at her admiring stare.

"Will you teach me how to do that?" she sounded desperate to be as skilled as Slick, which suited him fine as long as she didn't get better.

"Another day," Slick mewed breezily, as if inwardly, he wasn't bursting with excitement at the idea. "Right now we will focus on healing my scratches.

"Here. Look, this is marigold, though the name isn't important unless you are telling somecat to fetch it. And spiderwebs are very useful for stopping blood or tying on herb poultices. Go and find some for that ear wound that's still bleeding."

"Okay!" she padded off slightly unsurely into the forest in search of a hollow log or tree which might hold spiderwebs.

Slick wasn't going to let her go alone. He would, of course, follow her, and, obviously, not tell her.

He counted ten plump rabbits jumping over the bush in his head and, before he started to feel drowsy, went after her, careful not to catch up or let her get to far. He had dropped into a skilful crouch, not unlike the one he used for hunting, and started stalking her like one of the helpless shrews he caught and ate every day.

And, in a way, she was helpless: if anything wanted to ambush her, they could pick on her like any small rodent.

What also made prey vulnerable was noise, hunters could hear it scuffling, and, in that other respect too, the citypet was exactly similar to it.

Ivy was blundering through the forest like a badger gone batty. Ferns crushed under her paws left and right, and she was making a lot more racket than any mouse ever had.

_ It's not right for cats to make that much noise!_ thought Slick, shaking his head imperceptibly. _The quicker she's back to her Pink-legs the better off she'll be, and so will we. At the rate she's going, every single mouse and hare will be trembling in its hole._

He watched as she found some spiderwebs and swathed it over a front paw until she had taken most of it from under the rock, and her paw was covered with milky white.

Limping to keep the paw off the floor, she turned around...and walked straight into him.

"Finding spiderwebs this quickly was good," praised Slick, "but you have to work on being quieter, it would be bat-brained to do that while hunting, the prey would be frightened off and the other cats would not be happy."

"There are... other cats?" Ivy's _why are you this mean to me?_ look had faded, to be replaced by… disbelief? Curiosity? Interest? Slick couldn't tell.

His annoyance with her grew as he realised she couldn't even tell cat scent from prey scent, and she would need to make some serious improvement.

"Yes and you don't want to get on their bad side," he finished, like this was the end of the conversation and Ivy wasn't staring around her as if she was dying to see and know more about these cats, or even talk to them or interact like she surely did with the friendly, plump, clawless citypets back where she came from.

_Trust me,_ he finished mentally to Ivy, though she couldn't hear him, fortunately as he didn't want her to get scared, run away, and become even more lost, _you do_ not _want anything to do with these cats…_

**Hey I'm actually not that bad at endings! What are you saying, dear readers? Fox attack? Betrayal? Broken promise? Oh you're talking bout that! Well yes, I lied to Slick fully knowing he'd get attacked by a fox next chapter and used it to bribe him. I'm so proud of myself!**

**Slick (previously 'Stranger')- That's mean! Now I'm covered in scratches!**

**Crystalshine-yeah well that's what happens when you live in the wild...**

**See y'all next time! Don't forget to review? Please? I'm so pathetic. Thanks again to DappledleafTheBootiful for being my first reviewer (hopefully not my last and that is up to ****_YOU _****I see you, you non-reviewer!)!**

**B  
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	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the long wait! Happy St and welcome to my pity party! All my excuses for putting this up late: 1. year 8 is a killing machine. 2. I have a damn time limit on my computer (something about not being responsible, I really don't get what they mean). 3. my parents are separated so I forget my computer. 4. my computer's wifi keeps going weird so yeah. I do realise no one wanted this invite, so let's stop whining and reply to the reviews!**

**DappledleafTheBootiful-my fellow shipper, Slick and Ivy will have a mentor-apprentice relationship, but a bit different as you will see in this chapter, and an age gap to match, though I did consider this idea and you can continue shipping them! I assure you Ivy will have a very interesting love life (forbidden RiverClan mates haven't gone out of fashion yet... Moonshade wouldn't approve of that spoiling!)**

**American Girl-Thank you!**

**I invited a special cat to say the disclaimer at the end because Ivy _still _won't say it without sadistic persuading. Here is the long awaited (sorry for that) chapter 4!**

Ivy wanted to know more about these cats. No, she was desperate to. Her curiosity was piqued and no adult cat had ever been able to stop it being satisfied, like the time, when she was a young kit, when her mother had forbidden her to see the other gardens. Ivy had found a hole under the fence that another animal had made and found the old cat Mittens behind it. She had often come back for stories.

She had also wondered why the sky was blue, and how grass grew. Bella had always replied with short answers like: "we don't know that but what we do know is that curiosity killed the cat". Thinking of her mother made her think of her siblings, and grief seared her heart. Her sister, Jolie **(pretty, in French ((you pronounce it [jo-lee])) )** had died of an illness that even the vet couldn't cure. They had done everything together, from exploring, to pulling pranks.

As her mind drifted, Slick started to get irritated. "Will you stop staring into space and daydreaming and _listen_?" he snapped, holding up a plant with pretty yellow flowers.

"I_ am_ listening," Ivy lied, staring dead into his eyes challengingly, "I just don't look like it."

"Forgive me _Your Highness,_" Slick apologised sarcastically, "Now will _Your Supremacy please_ tell me about the use of goldenrod _which I just explained?"_

At Ivy's lack of response, her teacher added scathingly: "That's what I thought. Goldenrod is used for wounds, especially infected ones. And the cobweb that you found will be useful as well. Here is how to treat a wound: first, swathe cobweb over it until it stops bleeding. When it does, get rid of the cobweb and apply chewed-up marigold, horsetail, or, in this case, goldenrod, and secure the poultice with more cobwebs. You take off the whole thing and start again the next day so that the herbs don't fester and infect the wound."

Ivy's mind was a whirl. How could she remember all that, let alone the rest of healing and and hunting and fighting! She wanted to be as skilled as Slick, or more. Yes, more skilled. _That would really annoy him, _she guessed with a small smile.

"I don't know what you're smirking about but stop, it makes you look like a fox about to eat a kit." This cat was going to drive her crazy. _No one _had the right to insult her manic smirk! "Anyway," the aggravating tom went on, "tell me what you can remember and then you can treat me and I'll tell you if you do anything wrong."

"Ummm... You put on some cobwebs... Then you put on some chewed herbs... And put on some more the day after?" Ivy knew she had forgotten something and it was confirmed when Slick corrected her "Nearly, but you have to secure the poultice on with cobwebs first. Now try it on that belly wound. Don't take any notice if it stings me."

With unsure paws, Ivy picked up some cobwebs and placed it over Slick's wound. "Press on the edges to make sure it doesn't fall off," her mentor tried to help, and she tried to secure the edges down. Soon after, the wound had stopped oozing blood and Ivy could carefully remove the cobwebs, chewing up the goldenrod at the same time. _How can you stand this flavour? It's bitter and numbs my tongue and I don't _like _it__! _Ivy made a face at the sour taste and looked accusingly at her patient, infuriated by his knowing smile. "You should have warned me!" she hissed at him, spitting the poultice out onto the injury.

Slick winced but seemed to enjoy her tantrum. "You had to learn one day, and nothing I said could have prepared you for this." How did he manage to say this keeping such a strait face when he knew he was lying? Ivy was seething. She slapped more herbs on. Her teacher grimaced, but seemed to decide to irritate her. "You should have warned me!" he mimicked her voice freakishly well, but made it more squeaky, like a kit's. Or maybe that was just what her voice sounded like. Ivy growled and put on the extra cobwebs.

Her mentor stood up. "Good," he said, looking like he thought he had won the argument, "meet me tomorrow and you'll change the poultice, and then I'll teach you how to hunt properly."

_Hunting? _Ivy immediately forgot their squabble and her dark blue optics brightened. "It's not sunfall yet," she started, hopefully, "so maybe you can show me now?"

Slick hesitated, Ivy looked up at him with huge, shining, kitten eyes, tried to look soft and fluffy; "_Pleeeease?_" Apparently it worked. Slick melted under her gaze and said, "YES!" then seemed to notice how enthusiastically he had approved her idea, "Wow. That's amazing what you did with your eyes there..."

"You mean, _this?_" The younger cat made her eyes round and pleading, the fur around her face soft and kit-like. "_Aww, _you have to teach me that!"

"Maybe..." Ivy tried to find a way to turn this to her advantage. "As long as _you _teach me how to lie - I mean act."

"Deal." as always Slick seemed to think he had the upper paw, and didn't even try to hide it. He dropped into a crouch. His ears were drawn close to his skull, his eyes were slitted and his pelt was flat, his smooth coal-coloured fur and emerald eyes blending into the forest until she wouldn't have noticed him if she didn't know he was there. He looked like, no, he _was_ a shaded rock. "This is called a basic hunting crouch. Try and copy me."

Ivy crouched down close to the ground and tried to mimic his stance. She flattened her ears, stopped her pelt from bristling and closed her eyes until she could only see a thin line of green and black. _There! It's exactly the same as his! Even Slick can't criticise a perfect crouch._

"Hm..." Ivy got a feeling that Slick was deliberately looking for the smallest mistakes. "Pull your haunches down, you look like a duck. Don't raise your tail, you'll disturb plants and alert the prey. Tuck your back legs in closer, it'll give your pounce more power." Just as Ivy got used to the position, her mentor added: "Don't lower your tail _that _much, you'll move leaves and twigs on the ground." This time, the young cat was having trouble. She manged to raise her tail at just the right height, but that unbalanced her and she nearly toppled over to the side. _Who would have known how hard this is? _Ivy tried to keep her temper under control as Slick started purring slightly. "Try again," he suggested, "and I'll help you more."

Ivy crouched again, and Slick gently nudged her where she'd gone wrong and corrected her stance until she felt uncomfortable but she had managed to perfect the hunting crouch. As she eased into the position, Slick told her: "Now try and jump as far as you can." The younger she-cat bunched her muscles and sprang. She flew through the air, and was so surprised at how far she went that she lost her balance totally and failed the reception entirely, slipping and flopping ungracefully onto her side. "We'll have to work on that," Slick informed her _very _heplfully indeed, "but the pounce was pretty good for a first try. Do it again, and make sure to land on your forepaws slightly before your back paws."

"Why?" Ivy questioned. Slick answered: "If you land on all four, you'll make a heavy landing, and if you land on your hindlegs first you'll lose your balance...again." Ivy just glared and gave it another go. This time her crouch was almost perfect, but she was favouring her left front paw and so leaning to one side. Slick corrected her again, and Ivy jumped. This time she was prepared and knew almost exactly how far and fast she would go. She skidded a little when she landed but didn't fall. _I'm making progress. _Slick seemed to think so too and was nodding approvingly.

It wasn't good enough though. Ivy got the crouch perfect, concentrating hard on leaping straight, not too far from the ground but not too close either, that she didn't pay enough attention to the landing, and clumsily fell down, _once again. _"Come on," Slick encouraged her, "nearly there! If you do it perfectly now we can stop, and I'll catch us some prey. You can try for real tomorrow."She had to try again, and this time she had to get it right. She pulled herself down to the forest floor, brought her paws in tighter, raised her tail slightly off the ground and stopped it from waving around, lowered her ears, slitted her eyes, smoothed her cream-and-tabby fur and prepared to jump.

This was going to work. It had to. She wouldn't bear to be humiliated any longer. She focused on a daffodil and sprang, unsheathing her claws during the leap. She landed squarely on her intended target and shredded it down to some yellow and green mush in triumph. "I did it!" she breathed disbelievingly, eyes shining with her success.

**I actually have no idea how important this chapter is, but here is the disclaimer, said by my adorable dead cat that my grandparents wouldn't send to the vet, Mimine!**

**Crystalshine- Mimine, say the disclaimer**

**Mimine- ** ***purrs* hi everyone, just here to say that Crystalshine doesn't own anything from the original series that may appear in this story, that would be the Erins.**

**Crystalshine- That's right, otherwise Jayfeather and Half Moon would have found a way to be together! Jayfeather x Half Moon 5eva!**

**~After this embarrassing 'crazy shipper' episode that Crystalshine would rather you forgot~**

**Thanks for reading and REVIEW! Or else... *copies Ivy's manic smirk***

**B  
Y  
E  
~Crystalshine of LightClan  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again! This is just amazing that I found time to be here writing in this hectic life! Digital cookies to anyone who reads this and I love y'all! Especially reviewers! Since this is so early I only have one review... DappledleafTheBootiful (the reply to whose reviews we have seen on every chapter!)!**

**DappledleafTheBootiful- Ship away! But I promise that Ivy will meet some other toms (or she-cats, I haven't really decided and she probably doesn't know either lol) ! And probably soon... Digital cookies to you! (::) (::) (::)**

**SLICK'S POV OF THE NEXT DAY! Things are about to get interesting...**

Chapter 5

Slick woke up and stretched. His den was in an old badger set that no longer stank. He loved the darkness in which he slept. His pelt was perfectly camouflaged in the shadows and his luminous emerald eyes lit up the black like twin green stars. He didn't mind being underground either; he had made sure nothing would collapse before moving in. The den also had a second and a third entrance, so any cat inside couldn't be cornered easily.

Slick was a rather big cat about five season-rounds old **(35 in cat years) **and could fight off most other cats, and even a double attack. He had just proved himself to be able to battle a fox single-pawed, though not without injury. That was why Slick seldom had nightmares. But what brings these moontime terrors is not only fear. He was a self-assured cat who knew his strength. But not even he could escape memories. He shook his head to clear it of the nagging remnants of his past. _Thinking of this won't do me any good._ He licked his smooth pelt clean of moss and padded out. It was barely dawn, yet the light blinded his blurry eyes and he blinked to get used to it.

He would hunt and then find Ivy at sunhigh in the same clearing. He had planned the training session: she would change his poultice first; then they would go back over the basics of hunting and see if she could catch a mouse or another small, but quick, animal. He didn't expect the citypet to get anything on her first hunt but she could try. He had always done better when his prey was before his eyes than during training. His Instructor... He cut himself off. _No more memories. No more memories. The past is gone. I'll never see any of _them _again. I won't see her anymore. No more memories. _He repeated the words like a mantra, like they would help him forget, until they echoed around his brain in the form of a splitting headache. _I'm nothing like them._

* * *

Slick came back from hunting with only an old shrew and a blackbird with a broken wing that he had been lucky to find, a pitiful catch for such a good start to the Flower-season. His head still felt like a woodpecker was hammering at the inside of his skull, but at least it didn't feel like a dog was ripping it apart anymore. He ate the blackbird, and decided to throw away the tough shrew. Prey was about to start running and he could catch something better. Hopefully. He just had to stop thinking about... _Argh, I'm doing it again! _Slick cursed as his headache amplified. He tried to focus on finding prey for Ivy.

He drove all thought of the splitting headache out of his mind, but it was still there, omnipresent. He managed to pick up the scent of a vole. He crept up on it in a slightly lopsided crouch, thinking briefly about how he had criticised Ivy for doing the exact same thing, before pouncing. He landed just right of the prey and made a quick grab at it, tearing its throat out and making it squeal. _What a messy kill. _Slick shook his head at his own terrible hunting,but at least he had caught it.

He went back to the meeting spot, dragging his paws. He sensed the headache was near and tried to force it out of his mind, and found that a headache was harder to drive off than a fox. It wouldn't leave, and nothing would persuade it. It was like a stubborn badger; hard to chase away and doesn't want to budge.

When he arrived at the clearing, Ivy was already there, her tail flicking in excitement. She looked ready for the lesson but Slick wanted to test her first. He circled the clearing in a wide arc until he was a couple of fox-lengths behind her, making sure to stay downwind. She lifted her nose, seeming to catch his scent, before lowering it again. _She smelled me! _Slick thought incredulously. _The wind was blowing towards _me_! _But Ivy hadn't identified the scent, and Slick exploded out of the bushes, bowling her over easily despite his wound.

He stared down at her surprised face. He got off her. "And that, Ivy," Slick licked a paw, "is a surprise attack."

Ivy narrowed her eyes as she picked herself up and groomed dust out of her pelt. "Hello to you too. I knew I could smell something." _The wind was blowing her scent to _me_, not the other way round! _Either she was lying or... Or what?

Slick acted like nothing had happened. "You wanna start?" at her nod, he laid down on his uninjured side. "Get rid of the poultice and replace it. Ask me if you don't remember." As he looked up at her, his vision blurred, and he saw instead a pure white she-cat with striking blue eyes shining cold and warm at the same time. His head began to pound. His heart wanted to burst out of his chest. He was on fire and ice surrounded him. "Crystal..." he murmured deliriously.

"Slick?" a worried mew came from above him, and his vision tried to focus through the throbbing of his head. "Are you okay?" Who was that talking to him? Was it _her_? This voice wasn't as familiar, but whoever it was seemed to care more than most cats ever had.

"Let me forget..." Slick mumbled almost inaudibly. The white she-cat blurred into a piece of snow and sky. "Please..." It seemed vaguely to him that he was thrashing around.

"Slick! Wake up!" some cat's panicked voice came from the other side of the world. The white grew until it took up his whole life, two sunny icicles staring at him from the middle of the snowstorm. _You'll never forget me. You've always known that. _Slick's mind went haywire. He hadn't thought that! "Who is it? Why are you talking to me?"

Slick felt himself being tied to something and forced to stop thrashing his limbs. He felt his flank sting as some cat did something. He felt something rasp against a painful area in his side. But he couldn't see; his sight was taken up by visions of a white pelt. He couldn't hear; his ears were filled with a soft voice that no cat could resist. He couldn't smell; the only scent was the delicate fragrance of a frosted bluebell. And, in the middle of it all, blue eyes, like shining crystals, cold as a mountain stream and warm as a Leaf-season day. As he watched, the clear, frosty blue turned to ice. The ice shattered and he was thrown out of his hallucination.

There was green once again; there was life. There was a smell too. Slick thought it was a seven-moon old she-cat, but he couldn't be sure. The pelt wasn't white anymore. It was cream-and-tabby. The eyes were a darker blue. But he didn't care who it was. Some cat was taking care of him, and that was enough. He fell back into sleep and this time, no visions disturbed him.

But, deep down, he knew that Crystal would come back to haunt him.

**This is it! Finally posting again! I normally get the new cats to say the disclaimer, but I doubt that Crystal - whoever she is - would want to. So I'll just say it myself. I don't own anything from the original series that may appear and I don't own Warriors (or ShadowClan would be more important!)**

**Thank you to all the reviewers and readers!**

**Peace and love**

**~Crystalshine of LightClan**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, guys, me again! Sorry for the long hiatus, but it got me time to think about the plot (and to feel guilty about leaving you hanging).**** So umm I'd like to put a T rating on the 5th paragraph and advise the weak-hearted to skip it (gruesome description of a pretty bad wound). Also, exceptionally, this chapter starts in the middle of the last one, when Slick goes _cray cray _and starts saying stuff that doesn't make sense. Well it does to me! Please review me your guesses, I like to laugh maniacally at those, knowing that none of you have any idea how cruel I am with my characters (joking, joking, I enjoy seeing you guess). Cause it's my job to know everything and to keep you guessing  (and your job to _REVIEW,_ _REVIEW, _REVIEW, _review,__ review, _review! I meant this to be, like, a really cool echo effect, but I think I failed XD)! Enjoy chapter 6, Ivy's POV (which got deleted a stupid number of times)!**

_Chapter 6_

_Slick was thrashing in some _kind of fevered seizure, muttering about cold suns... or was it warm ice? Ivy didn't know what to do as she stared down in horror at her teacher.

"Slick?" she called, trying not to panic. "Are you okay?" She sounded stupid, even to herself. A blind_ kit _would notice that Slick was _not _okay. But what could she do? Right from the second they had met, he had always tried to offer help to that poor lost Town cat who he didn't even know - but he knew how. _I don't know anything about the wild! I can't even hunt! _Slick was now murmuring something about frosted flowers.

A wave of guilt washed over her as she realised that it was surely her fault, and that she had put the poultice on wrong. She hadn't even been bothered to listen properly and now Slick was ears deep in an infection-induced fever. But if the source of the problem was the poultice, it should be solved if somecat replaced it! But Ivy couldn't, could she? Just the sour odour wafting up from the wound made her queasy. _Do I really have a choice? _Slick had been kind to her when he wasn't criticising. She took some nearby vines and tied him up to some roots to stop him from moving. Trying to force the smell out of her nose, she started taking off the poultice.

As she scraped away the last of the rotting goldenrod, the smell got stronger. Soon, it was all off. Ivy instinctively glanced away at the bloody red mess of the wound. She screwed up her eyes and readied herself. She turned her head back and forced herself to look.

***Warning T rating applies here* **The wound was like a gaping hole in Slick's flank. How had she failed to notice it? At the bottom pooled some blood, and a sickly yellow, which was probably pus, was oozing out. The flesh was painted crimson and the fur around was saturated in scarlet, turning the jet-black an ugly shade of brown. Ivy quickly got some cobwebs from under a rock and pressed it onto the injury with surprisingly deft paws. ***T warning ends* **

But a wound like that couldn't go without a proper herb. She recalled Slick telling her how good goldenrod was for infected wounds. But no goldenrod was to be found in the clearing, though its scent could be smelled from somewhere not too far away. She was reluctant to leave Slick but he needed care, and she couldn't give it without goldenrod.

She left, and followed the scent for a while. She passed old oak trees and bramble bushes, confusing herself at how easily she weaved through the thick forest. But she didn't really have time to think about it. Slick could be dying! She walked faster... and something bumped into her.

"Why did you bump into me?" An annoyed tom who didn't look much older than her was standing there, asking stupid questions.

"Excuse me, _you _bumped into _me_!" Toms could be so stupid.

"No I didn't, you - you know what, I really don't want an argument right now." He was acting sensible?

"Yeah, I don't either, I have a friend to save." Ivy sat down. He sat down too. His pelt was grey with ripples of black across it. His eyes were a shade of green that she had never seen before. The sun was shining into them and they looked golden. She wondered what colour they shone in the night.

"Save a friend?" after a moment, the tom reacted, and Ivy was snapped back to reality.

"Yes! He's injured! Do you know where you can find goldenrod?" his blank expression told her he didn't know what it was. "A plant with yellow flowers."

"Oh, I know where to find that. It's not far away."

He led her a few foxlengths to a bush. She could smell that the goldenrod was behind.

"You probably saved Slick's life!" Ivy didn't know how to express her gratitude, but a shadow seemed to pass over the tom's strange eyes. Then it was gone, replaced by a lighthearted glimmer.

"Sure," he said, "I save cats' lives everyday." For a second, Ivy thought he was serious, and then started purring lightly.

"Thank you so much... um, what's your name?" _That was so awkward... _Ivy cringed inwardly.

"It's Jay, no problem." Okay, great, he hadn't thought she was some weird random she-cat. "What's yours?"

Ivy suddenly felt very dumb, in both ways. What was her name again? "Um, it's Ivy."

Jay asked whether he could come with her. "I'd like to help - I mean - yeah, I'd like to help, um, Slick."

"Sure," Ivy was reassured; he seemed as awkward as she felt.

* * *

Ivy followed her own scent trail back to the clearing where she had left Slick. He had stopped twitching, but he was shivering, as if he was cold. She touched a pad to his nose. It was warmer than it should be, yet another indicator of his rising temperature, but she didn't know how to treat a fever and, judging by his knowledge of herbs, neither did Jay.

He had been sitting around trying not to get too close to the injured cat. "You can come closer," Ivy beckoned with her tail, "I might need an extra set of paws."

Hesitantly, the grey tom stepped forward, and sat down a few pawlengths away from her. Ivy felt slightly uncomfortable; she had had little contact with toms her own age, and this seemed very strange to her as only two young toms had lived in her neighbourhood. She shuffled away a bit.

"Pass me the goldenrod." she ordered. His face turned blank for a heartbeat, and then he reached for the goldenrod and handed it to her. He was still not talking, so Ivy decided to strike up a conversation.

"Where's your mother?" she asked. "My mother's name is Bella. What's your mother's name?"

His face suddenly looked closed. "I don't really like to talk about it," he muttered cagily. Then the golden sparkle came back into his eyes, and Ivy couldn't help staring. "What was _your _kithood like?" he asked curiously.

"Well, I was born in the Town - "

"Wait, what's that?" Jay interrupted. She replied that it was a place not far away from there with noisy animals on hard black paths, and things called Townfolk that walked on their two back legs and that had ugly pink hairless faces. "Oh, you mean the monsters on the Thunderpaths, the Twolegs, and the City!"

Ivy guessed those were the wild cats' names and stored the information carefully in her brain. She started chewing the goldenrod and talked through her mouthful. "Sure. So I was born a housecat. I lived with my sister Jolie and there was an old cat whose Town - Twolegs lived next to ours. We went to him for stories, and he told us stuff about the forest, and the terrifying, mean wild cats - no offence - who ate dogs and killed other cats."

At the last statement, Jay started laughing. Between rolling on the floor laughing and purring his head off, he told her how much fox dung the dog-eating part was. He then recomposed himself and suddenly looked a lot more serious.

"Most of us don't kill other cats for fun either." He resumed his usual attitude of optimism. "So, what were you saying?"

Ivy chose to ignore his disturbing mood swings, and instead went on. "So, Jolie got this sickness but even the vet - the Twoleg who cures cats - couldn't heal her. She died..." Ivy's tail drooped, and Jay looked like he wanted to rest his tail on her shoulder comfortingly, but whisked it away at the last moment as if he didn't dare. Instead, he just bent his head in mourning, which Ivy didn't know was sweet or weird since he had never met her. _I guess forest cats are just different._

"I was kind of sad... I had nightmares about her for the next moon, and I wouldn't do anything." She let out a strange sound, halfway through a giggle and a sob. "Why a I even telling you this?

"So I was basically alone, with no one to play tricks on cats with, so I turned to some other kits in the neighbourhood. It was just two toms my age, they had friends in other parts of the Twolegplace too. In all, it was a pretty big gang of about six, and they went around stealing food from Twolegs who were eating outside, and teasing dogs by standing on fences and pulling faces at them, and putting ants in cats' baskets. They accepted me, I was one of only two she-cats in the Band. That's what they called it.

"I had fun, we invented games, laughed at each other... yeah, we had fun. I missed Jolie - I still do - but it seemed like there was finally something I could do to start making a life with other friends... Without her." Ivy busied herself skilfully - almost too much so - arranging the chewed goldenrod on the wound to stop herself from crying quietly, like she had done in her basket almost every night since her sister had died. Then her voice took on a steely quality. "I won't forget her, though. I'll _never _forget her."

As she finished treating Slick, much faster than she thought she could, she laid down between him and Jay. This time, he just pressed closer, and she let him do it. She had confided in him. What she had told him wasn't entirely true, though. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but the the memory of soft amber eyes and a tabby-dappled fluffy cream coat was already fading.

She closed her eyes, and dreamed, not of Jolie, but of eyes that had seemed to follow her all day. They weren't deep green, like Slick's. They weren't flecked with gold, like Jay's, though she hadn't stopped staring at them. No, those eyes were like ice-blue fire, warm and soft, yet cold and hard. They looked like crystals.

**What's the deal with those warm-cold blue eyes?**

**This chapter's extra long (2,000 words OMG! Yasss), and I wrote it in two days! I'm really getting a feel for the plot, some amazing ideas pouring in!**

**In this A/N, I'll give you a major clue about who Crystal might be and what her role is... Though even if you do notice, it won't give away that much *evil laugh***

**_Crystal_****shine - Jay, say the disclaimer.**

**Ivy - look at his amazing eyes! *faints***

**Jay - sure. Crystalshine owns the plot, her characters, but not any cats from the original series that may appear, and especially not Warriors.**

**Crystalshine - that's right, otherwise *SPOILER ALERT* Sandstorm wouldn't have died in 'Apprentices Quest' *breaks down crying* Nooooo! Sandstoooorm! *END OF SPOILER***

**Jay is honestly one of my fave characters, I'm really sorry for what has to happen. It's for plot purposes. Nothing personal.**

**Review please! Me without reviews is like a rainbow in black-and-white! Boris Johnson without Brexit! Ariana Grande without her amazing voice!**

**So please review!**

** ~Crystalshine of LightClan, over and out**


	7. Chapter 7

**Woohoo, me again! Seven is my lucky number, and I may or may not include a bonus scene for every chapter ending in a seven!**

**Reviews! (They make me happy!)**

**DappledleafTheBootiful - Yeah, I think the Erins will soon kill off Greystripe and we'll be going "RIP Greystripe" next... Hopefully not _that _soon... TT-TT. Thank you sooo much I love getting your reviews, they make my day! **

**_BONUS SCENE_**

**Jay's POV**

_Jay's heart threatened to_ _explode_ from some weird emotion. From the second he had seen her, Ivy had struck him as quite pretty. Okay, a bit prettier than that. He didn't have much experience with pretty she-cats. He remembered his mother had been pretty before that pack of rogues got her. He wouldn't forget; he knew it was pointless to try anyway. But he had learned to numb himself against the pain of knowing he had had to basically raise himself, teach himself, by himself. It was a no-good life. Constantly alone.

He had had a family, a sibling, once. He preferred not to think about it and to look straight ahead, up the road, where it rose up to meet the stars. He could see it, his path, stretching up to far, far away.

Thanks to the little feline contact he had had, he was mostly terrible socially. He had put Ivy ill at ease by standing too close to her, and he had probably acted like a complete bat-brain most of the time. Though he did have that very same pretty she-cat sleeping, right next to him, and uncomfortably close to Sleek or whatever his name was.

He just sat there, next to a pretty she-cat. He was never next to pretty she-cats, or any cat really. He just sat there, looking at the pretty she-cat whose name was Ivy. He watched the pretty dappled flank rise and fall in time with her breathing. He studied every pretty splotch of striped brown on her pretty cream pelt.

Ivy was definitely pretty, and it made his heart beat with suppressed nerves. Or was there something more?

_Chapter 7_

_Slick woke up from his dream-like state and looked around. The world was sparkling in moonlight. It danced on leaves and the shadows looked like the night sky, studded with stars._

_The sky itself looked deeper, darker, and seemed to be shining with a million close, but very tiny, fireflies that splattered the cosmos. Violets, turned silver by the moon's kind glance, littered the ground in a soft carpet of sparkling flowers. There was no wind, yet it was neither hot nor cold. Or was it simply both?_

_A familiar voice called to him._

_"Slick!" It seemed far away, as if lost somewhere in time that he had deliberately tried to forget. But somewhere, stored in his mind, the memory that wouldn't disappear, that wouldn't let itself be forgotten, resurfaced from where Slick had chosen to bury it. It was a soft memory, one of a white pelt that shone almost blue, and of ice-blue eyes that gleamed warmly._

_"Crystal?" He had vowed to forget that name, it was a part of him that he hadn't thought he wanted anymore, but here he was, pronouncing it like he had done it all his life._

_A pure white she-cat with beautiful, cold blue eyes, shining like the sun, bounded toward him._ Beautiful... _He couldn't stop himself thinking the two words that seemed all to easily associated with the memory, and the she-cat in front of him._

_As she reached his side and rubbed against him, purring softly, a scent of bluebells and sun-drenched meadows surrounded him. Slick wanted to ask why she had left him, why they couldn't meet anymore in his dreams. But he didn't. He was under a spell of crystals, they wreathed around him like the heady smell of Leaf-season flowers. They ensnared him, and he couldn't get out._

_"I missed you..." Crystal half breathed half purred. Her soft pelt was pressing against his. So soft it felt like kit down. So white it looked like the moon on a clear night. So beautiful, like a crystal._

_"I missed you too," he admitted, "more than you could ever know."_

_"I do know," she assured him, "I missed you just as much, my kitty." She looked up at him, and her ice-blue optics were filled with more warmth than Slick knew any other cat had seen. _

_He was about to ask her where he was, but the spell was so powerful, the only thing he could say was : "How are you more beautiful than last time we met?" He was lost, and she was the path he was following. Her bright white fur, her gleaming blue eyes, her starlit soul lit up his darkness, lifted it so he could only see the light, gleaming white, like a kit playing in the snow the second time he sees it._

_But this wasn't a game. Slick wasn't playing. _

_Reluctantly, Slick broke away from Crystal. The landscape radiated all shades of starshine. Moonlight dripped onto everything, soaking it silver. He was momentarily drawn to it. "Where are we?" He had meant to ask more, but this was all he could get out without blurting out slightly creepy things about how beautiful she was. _

_"This is my place. No one comes here but me, and you when I invite you. I call it the Land of Stars, since there are no other cats to name it." She paused. "You're dreaming right now, and we have the whole night to ourselves."_

Wait... I'm _dreaming_? _Slick always met the pure white she-cat in his dreams, but he was surprised every time._

_"We have a whole night? It's been awhile. How about we catch up a bit?" Slick suggested._

_"Okay, kitty" Crystal purred softly, "You start."_

_The jet-black tom started babbling. _

_"Well, see, I have a pretty boring life. I hunt, I sometimes get into fights, but it got really weird a few sunrounds ago. I met this, I dunno, seven moon-old citypet, who got lost. She wanted to know the way back to the City, but I don't really remember." Slick paused for a second, and then went on, not noticing the slight smirk that indicated that Crystal knew he was lying. "So I offered to train her a bit, so she can survive until she finds her way back, and the first day we met up, I got attacked by a fox." he puffed out his chest proudly. "I chased it off all by on__ own and barely got injured." Here was the wry smile again, perfectly controlled so Slick couldn't have noticed it was there._

_"I taught Ivy - that's her name - the basics of herbs, but I'm not sure how well she'll do if she's confronted with an emergency." Crystal's eyes gleamed like she thought something was funny. _

_"You should wake up. You want to get back to the real world." Crystal was voicing a possibility he didn't really want to consider. She ensnared him, and he couldn't get out... even if he wanted to._

_"Why can't I stay here with you?" he sounded like a whiny kit, but he didn't give a lizard's scale. He wanted to stay; surely the pure-white innocent, wide-eyed Crystal wouldn't stop him. "I - I don't want to leave."_

_Crystal gave a tiny smile, but shook her head. "This is no place to live, my kitty. This is not a place where cats meet to have fun. This place's sole purpose is to fit my most simple needs until I can leave."_

_"Don't I have a choice Crystal? Why can't I stay with you forever?"_

_"You have a real life, a real world, a real cat to return to." Crystal smiled sadly._

_Slick tried to move closer to her, but she was fading away to transparency. He was waking up. He didn't want to, but that wasn't anything new. Since he had met Crystal, the real world had to peal him away from her. _

_It occurred to him to ask why he had never met her in the Land of Stars before. He hadn't noticed that crystal was like a hypnotist, weaving a spell that no cat could understand. _

I want to help you. I will walk alongside you always. _Crystal's disembodied voice floated through space - or was it his mind - and he knew that she only willed him good. _

**To make this clear, the Slick POV part was in italics because it's a dream.**

**Crystal is some cat that seems to have a history with Slick... Who ships Crystal x Slick now? Who thinks she's evil? Who doesn't know?**

**Hehe, I'm hoping most of you are in that last category... AGAIN? PLEASE REVIEW BECAUSE IT MAKES ME HAPPY! DON'T BE A SILENT READER PLEASE! You have the power of the review in your hands, and the key to my motivation! (I only started writing DappledleafTheBootiful's review... _NO please, not the rooten tomatoes!)_  
**

**By the way, Crystal is meeeeeeeeeeee.**

**Hope you like it and a huge shoutout to Dappledleaf (is it ok if I call you that?) because she reviews - UNLIKE _YOU_! Also, the number of reviews helps me get an idea of how many people like this 7th grader's probably not-so-amazing, I'm-better-at-art work/ weird thing.**

**So PLEEEEEEASE review, it makes my day, like I said above, and you will get a special mention on the beginning A/N! Doesn't that sound fun!**

**B**

**Y**

**E**

** ~Crystalshine, over and out**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hellooooooooooooooo! We have reached chapter 888888888888888 (8)! I love everyone who reviews!**

**I was like, if I get a review from someone other than Dappledleaf (don't get me wrong, I love your reviews!), it'll make me extra happy, and when I'm happy I move the plot a bit!**

**I'll make this chapter extra short, sorry, but this is just something that I had to do, to show a bit more about Crystal/Meeeeeee**

**Let's call this Chapter 8 1/2!**

_Chapter 8 1/2_

_The light of the moon_ glitters off the lush, starwashed landscape, the ominous sky so dark that it could be the pelt of a jet-black cat. I let the act fall. My eyes become ice-cold again, like they are when I'm not pretending. My powers can only hold out so long. I make the stars drop at my paws, the moon fall, and suddenly, everything is bathed in black. My bright pelt is swallowed, but my icy eyes still stand out, the pupils widening until I can see just as well.

_ The Land of Stars, pfff. _I know I'm lying to Slick, and I resent it. I genuinely do. I'm playing him, but I hadn't meant him to fall for me so hard. I was also lying about what this place was. _The Land of Stars! How gullible can Slick be? _This place is neither StarClan nor the Dark Forest. I can't walk either. This is a place just under the stars, yet I cannot see them.

But I don't mind. I relish the darkness. It has the power to hide anything, to swathe the whole world in its infinite, fascinating depths.

I care about Slick, but as an acquaintance, not a cat I would gladly see die, but still one that I would sacrifice if necessary.

But the future needs him. I know it. And this kittypet, Ivy, will be even more important. I feel power that I already knew was there, before she came to the forest, before she was born. Her birth has been prophecised by the spirits of StarClan. I want to spit out my anger at the name. _StarClan. _

I have seen Ivy's destiny in the black of the night long before they have read it in the stars. It is a destiny that many cats, cats that I know personally, would do anything to prevent.

But I'm content to just sit back and watch. I don't care what the outcome is. Well, not that much. Not so little that I won't participate in what is to come.

Because I changed my mind. My whole life has been leading up to this paw I will have in this blazing destruction. I _won't_ sit back and watch. I had a destiny too, before it was stolen from me, and I intend to pitch in and make sure to observe the world of the _Clans _as it crumbles around them.

**Hey, that was actually pretty good, should I start to take pride in my endings?**

**Question of the chapter: Why did Crystal say 'kittypet' instead of 'citypet'? **

**And now, some very short Jay POV because I really like writing him and because (again) this is necessary to the plot. And because who doesn't like the possibility of a new ship? *Thinks of crazy shippers, cough cough, Crystalshine, cough cough* Jay x Ivy sounds nice!**

**This is still Chapter 8 1/2**

_Chapter 8 1/2 (Continued)_

_Ivy was still asleep when _Jay woke up. She was looking so peaceful, he didn't want to disturb her, but guilt was eating away at him.

She had a life; it was far away in the City, but it was still there, waiting for her. Pink-legs would still be waiting for the return of their citypet, a nest would be somewhere in a den, smelling of her. Friends would be wondering where she was.

But he was keeping something from her.

But it wasn't out of spite, or jealousy of her comfortable, friend-filled life.

He just wanted to spend a day with some other cat his age, to play like his family wasn't dead, slain by the Gang or by hunger. To have fun like he was a kit again.

To feel loved, warm under some cat's welcoming gaze.

Or was it simply the need to end the never-ending loneliness that no cat should have to live with?

To fill the void that had been expanding ever since he had been all alone, Jay against all odds, Jay against the world.

He wished it would just stop, but it would never be over should he tell Ivy what he knew now. He knew the way to the City. But she would hate him for holding the information back, and he would plummet again into the precipice he had just started to crawl out of.

He just wanted a friend.

**Please tell me what you think, this is my first fic, I wanna know what you guys think, so review!**

**Crystalshine - *mutters : 'this is so weird'* Crystal, say the disclaimer.**

**Crystal - *mutters : 'I'm talking to myself' and shakes head* Okay, here goes: Crystalshine doesn't own the Warriors world nor does she claim to (otherwise Dovewing would actually keep the same eye colour through the whole series lol)**

**B  
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** ~Crystalshine of LightClan, over and out (REVIEW!)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Happy (late) Valentine's Day! Heart shaped lollies to anyone who had a Valentine, and to everyone who didn't (like me)!**

**IvypoolIsAwesome - I love Ivypool too! I'll check out your story, but what is it called? It looks amazing! Also, HOW dare you steal my prefix for Crystal-breeze! TRADEMARKED! :'D. And why would my characters need warrior names? But i know what Ivy's would be. Is Crystal evil? Would I really make myself evil? And I'll check out your story, we can write and watch for updates from each other! Just what is it called?**

**Dappledleaf - Nope 7777 It's MY number! Ah. The million-dollar question. _Who _is Crystal? And Jay wants to hug you too. Almost as much as wants to hug Ivy. And if you liked the dream chapter you'll like this one too!**

**THANK YOU to for all those reviews, to be honest I never expected that many for my whole story! (14 reviews! It might not seem amazing but it's a tiny victory! Help me woin the war by reviewing!)**

**The holidays are here, FREEDOOOOOM! Enjoy this specially lovey-dovey chapter for Valentine's Day!**

_Chater 9_

_Ivy woke up. The crystal _eyes seemed to follow her into the waking world, and she felt like she saw them everywhere. She shook her head many times, blinked furiously, but they wouldn't leave. She couldn't get rid of them, so why not embrace them, follow their command? Her lids felt heavy, and she fell back into sleep...

_The sky was a deep black, making the stars look like they shone brighter, when, instead, it was the stars darkening the jet-black of the sky. In front of Ivy stood a pretty she-cat around her age, with fluffy pure white fur and striking ice-blue eyes that shone with all the warmth of the sun. _

_"Hiiiiiii," the other she-cat mewed excitedly. "I've wanted to meet you for ages! You're Ivy, right?"_

_"Hiiiiii!" Ivy instinctively trusted this she-cat. This was familiar ground; they were acting like friends, the ones that Ivy had left in the Town, from the Band._

_"How do you know my name?" _

_"I've been looking at you for awhile now. My name's Crystal." Crystal sat down and licked her paw. "You're dreaming, and we have the whole night to ourselves."_

_Ivy reeled back in shock. The dream felt so real! She hadn't realised that she wasn't in the real world, but it made sense; this universe sparkled with stars and its shadows imitated the night sky, black and studded with stars._

_"Sorry if I surprised you, I called you here." Crystal's eyes took on a desperate look. "I'm sooo sorry. It's just that, I'm so lonely, all alone in this Land of Stars. I thought we could be friends..."_

_"It's fine, it was a little creepy when you said you were watching me, but I want a friend too." Ivy paused. "The Land of Stars? Is this what this place is called?"_

_"Yep. It's pretty, isn't it?" the white she-cat said. "We can be the stars to each other's lives, now."_

_Crystal's voice had a hypnotic quality to it, and Ivy found herself nodding vigorously. "Yes."_

_"Can you promise me we'll always be friends?" she looked so imploring that Ivy pressed herself against her flank and purred softly. "Yes. I promise."_

_"To seal the deal, you have to tell me something that no cat knows about your life, and then I'll do the same."_

_"Okay," Ivy agreed, "well, with my sister Jolie, we put ants in our mother's nest... No cat else needs to know, right. " Ivy bumped her head against her new friend's shoulder._

_"Now it's my go." Crystal fixed her with sparkling eyes. "I'll surprise you with this, Ivy, but... Jay's been lying to you. He knows the way to Two - um - the City, and he's kept it from you. He's selfish; he likes to see others suffer while he thrives." Her eyes glimmered in... What? Outrage? Anger? _Satisfaction?

What? He's lying to me? "_No..." Ivy stuttered, "Tha-that's impossible!"_

_Crystal's eyes glittered icily - or was it just because of their natural colour? "What proves to you that he's trustworthy?"_

_"I- I don't know." Ivy's dark blue gaze darkened to a glare, matching her friend's. "How dare he do that to me?" _

_"Wake up and confront him." Crystal suggested, her voice as hard as flint._ "Make _him show you the way."_

* * *

Ivy brutally shook Jay awake.

"Why?" her eyes were glazed over, as icy as Crystal's. You could have thought that they belonged to the same cat as dark blue eyes frosted to ice.

Jay looked half asleep, but he saw her bristling fur and her aggressively tilted ears and his eyes widened in fear. Ivy felt a small twinge of satisfaction at his fright.

"Why didn't you tell me you knew the way?" Ivy's eyes burned like icy flames as Jay cowered on the ground. "Why? I trusted you!" But, instead of sounding menacing, the intended growl came out as a pathetic sob. She didn't want to cry.

She shook her head to clear her dark blue eyes of tears, but she crumpled onto the ground helplessly.

A tail stroked her back gently, but, amazingly, Slick was still sleeping, more restfully than before, though he would probably wake up soon. She let herself be calmed as Jay started grooming her ears like a mother would do do a kit who had had a nightmare.

"I'm sorry." His mew was so soft she could barely hear it. "I do know the way. If you're really sure... I'll take you back."

"Thank you." Ivy was sure. A few moments ago, she could have killed him for what he'd done, a blazing, ice-cold frenzy taking over her. She let him lick her ears reassuringly, and as she started to drop off, she began to doubt.

Her uncertainty jolted her brain awake from the half-dizzy half-sleepy mess that it was a heartbeat ago. _Do I really want to go back to my old life?_

_Of course you do. _Was that Ivy's inner voice, or something darker?

_But what about Slick? What about_ Jay_?_ Suddenly she didn't know whether to leave or stay. She sat up, interrupting Jay's grooming.

"I'm sorry too." Ivy apologised tentatively.

Jay started cleaning his own fur and didn't look up. "For what?"

"Sorry for leaving you alone..."

"What tells you I'm alone?" His eyes flashed defiantly. He crouched to the ground, ears pinned to his head defensively. They were still whispering, trying not to wake Slick, but Ivy felt like he would be yowling if he could.

It was Ivy's turn to press herself into the ground at Jay's fury. _I just suggested he might be a bit lonely, overreacting much!_

"Let's just say nothing happened," Jay backed away and sat down, a bit further from her. "No cat got mad, because you didn't imply I was lonely, and I didn't keep anything from you."

Ivy shuffled closer, heart soaring. "That stuff never happened," she agreed, "Never." She pushed her muzzle into his warm shoulder, and he nuzzled her head. She forgot the world around them, like they were in a bubble of peace that no amount of sharp-clawed kits could pop.

"Are you still..." Jay gulped audibly. "Are you still sure about leaving?"

"I don't know... My whole life is there, my friends, my family..." Ivy's heart ached at the thought of leaving all that behind.

"But here, there's freedom," Jay tried to persuade her, and he was doing a pretty good job of it. "You can do what you want, eat what you want... Here there's open spaces and the wind and the joy of speed... Here there's rivers and lakes... Here's there's the shade of trees and the darkness of night..." _Here there's you. _Ivy bit her tongue to not say her thought out loud.

"Here it isn't as warm or comfy as it was in your den," Jay pressed on, "but you have the warmth of a thousand stars. You can't see them in the City, can you?"

The bubble popped. Stars. The Land of Stars. Crystal.

"I'm so sorry. I can't decide..." If she left, she would still see Crystal. It was all the same to her. But she could still go to her new best friend for advice. "I'll sleep on it."

Jay looked disappointed, but he nodded.

* * *

_"Crystal?" Ivy was back in the dream world. Crystal was standing at her side. "What should I do?" She asked. _

_"It's your choice..." Ivy was about to argue but her friend continued, "...but if I were you, I'd leave. I mean, can a cat just abandon their friends, family, their home?"_

_The cream-and-tabby she-cat melted under the ice-blue gaze._Of course. Crystal's right. Jay's not worth it and Slick can take care of himself.

_"Thanks for showing me the path to follow." Ivy leaned against the other cat. She could feel herself dissolving. The Land of Stars was disappearing._

_"Bye, Crystal, and thank you!" Ivy yowled, hoping Crystal could still hear her. She was going to tell Jay that she was sorry but she wanted to go home._

* * *

In a dark place where the stars had just ceased to shine, a fully grown white she-cat whose pelt was barely visible looked into a pool of black with icy eyes that could melt rocks.

She could see Ivy waking.

_It's too easy. She's the cat from the prophecy. She should be less trusting, but I can't say it bothers me. _

_I'm her new best friend. I've gained her trust already. I'll just play along with her little kit games... for now. But remember, my kitty... I can change the rules..._

**So, _my kitties, _review, follow, favourite, I'm grateful to the reviewers! You guys made my day when I saw how many reviews I had. I literally jumped into the air and squealed! **

**Thank you so so much!**

**Crystal is almost definitely evil, but what are her motives?**

**Also I used to think the fic's name was terrible but now I realise I can make so many allusions to it in the text, it's fun!**

**B**

**Y**

**E**

** ~Crystalshine of Lightclan, over and out (REVIEW!)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hiiiiiiiiiiiii! Hellooooooo! I'm baaaaaaaaaaack! Who wants more of Ivy's adventure! I'm really getting ahead in the plot, but I don't want to move it ****_too _**

**fast. Also sorry for not updating, I was skiing and there was no WiFi TT_TT !**

**Yoop, hello yep hiii! Nope not drunk (don't drink, kids!). **

**luv u aaaaaallllllllllll yeeeeeee (or yupidoodles, and yuppification, depending if you're my friend K.T.)**

**... OMG LOOK A BIIIRD! Like, I dunno, Birdflight, Birdsong, Birdwing, Birdfeather, Birdheart, Birdbrain (just kidding!), Birdblaze, Birdfire, Birdtail, **

**Birdstreak, Birdfrost, Birdleaf, Birdbranch, Birdsnow, Birdbush, Birdshine, Birdmoon, Birdglow, Birdpelt, Birdear, Birdflame, Birdgaze, Birdstare, Birdice, **

**Birdfoot, Birdstorm, Birdflock, Birdwater, Birdwatcher, Birdface, Birdpath, Birdspirit, Birdcloud, Birdsky!...**

**I was too lazy to delete this sooo.**

**Dappledleaf - This was your favourite chapter! yay I'm so happy I worked so hard on it! And, about Crystal, I really like her too! Possibly because she's **

**meeeee, like Crystalshine = Crystal! And, maybe... or is it something else... Something darker... **

**Da chappie staaaarts! (yup I'm weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird!)**

* * *

_"You made my heartbreak again"-Lucid Dreams, Juice Wrld_

* * *

_Chapter 10_

_Ivy woke to the sight _of Slick and Jay talking. They hadn't noticed her and Jay continued to mew, waving his tail, agitated, as if he was talking about something alarming

or exciting.

_I have to tell him that I need to leave. I'll apologise. He'll understand._

* * *

**Jay's POV**

_"She treated you like she'd _been healing dying cats all her life!" Jay exploded. _How is it possible? _"And now you're telling me you taught her how to yesterday!"

"I don't understand it either." Slick shook his head in disbelief. "And you said she wanted to go back to the - I mean, leave? What did I do wrong?"

Jay didn't know what he meant; if Slick could be so nice to a cat that they'd patch up his wound with such zeal, he must be a good cat. Any jealousy he'd felt of the easy

closeness that Ivy and her mentor shared, despite how little they knew each other, had faded away.

"She told me she'd sleep on it but I'm sure she'll choose to leave!" He knew that panic was making his thoughts fuzzy, but what if she did leave? He couldn't bear to be

left alone once more.

Slick hung his head sadly. "I guess she knows what's best for her... but I know she could have done well here."

Jay didn't understand why he was so sad; he had been wandering on his own for most his life, why would he be so desperate not to see Ivy, a cat he had barely met, go

back to the place she had never really meant to leave, her home? Maybe because she'd looked at him with those pretty dark blue eyes of hers, brushed against his pelt

with her soft fur... He lowered his eyes as the prospect of never seeing her again, and being as friendless as before. _It's crazy how everycat seems to grow attached to _

_her so much after just a sunround or two. _Or was it just him?

Slick's voice shook him out of his depressing thoughts. "We're being defeatist." His mew was firm, as if he wanted to convince Jay as much as the young cat could tell he

wanted to convince himself. "There's still a chance that -" he cut himself off as Ivy scampered up to them, looking light, like the weight of a heavy decision had been

lifted off her shoulders to rest on somecat else's. "Here she is." the older cat murmured.

Jay turned around to face her, his face a mask of desperate hope. Maybe, just maybe, she's choose to stay here with them. If she didn't, Slick and I would go our

separate ways and probably never see each other again, as well as Ivy. It was all or nothing for Jay, but it was Ivy deciding. How could three cats' paths depend on only

one of them's choice?

Jay reflected on the unfairness of it all, and a voice swamped me back to memories, too closely linked with a family that I needed to remember to forget.

_The image of a battle-scarred grey tom with half his right ear missing appeared. He was growling at a small grey cat with darker markings and eyes that looked a dull _

_green under the feeble light._ _"Life is unfair!" he snarled, clouting the younger cat heavily over the head, yellow eyes glaring._

Jay was jerked out of his unpleasant daydream by Ivy's sunny voice, greeting them. Why did her mew sound so pretty when she was about to announce such a life-

changing decision?

Ivy opened her mouth to speak, and Jay wanted to cover his ears. He wanted to sink into the ground rather than to hear what he was sure she was about to say. He

stole a glance at Slick and knew he felt the same. His paws fidgeted on the ground, disturbing leaves and ants. Such a carefree expression was on Ivy's face that Jay

wondered if she cared at all. Didn't she realise that what she was about to say would change the lives of all the cats sitting there, for the better, or for the worse? They

sat there, under the cold, uncaring, silver moon while the stars bled the last of their light overhead, like condemned cats in front of the Court of the Gang, waiting for the

death sentence.

"I want to go back."

Five words that could

tear

Jay's

heart

a-p-a-r-t-.

* * *

**Ivy's POV**

There. She'd said it. She'd felt like she was floating on a cloud since her dream, soaring above the stars as they gave way to dawn light. _Thanks, Crystal._

She didn't pay attention to their expressions. They'd be happy for her, right?

_Time skip_

Jay led Slick and Ivy through a maze of trees and leaves. She might actually miss it. The sunshine filtering through the canopy. The soft wind that rustled the branched

and cooled her fur. The rising sun's gentle kiss as dawn embraced the forest. _But I don't belong here, and anyway, Crystal told me to leave, and she must be right. She _

_wouldn't lie._

The young she-cat pushed away a sliver of doubt. Crystal was her best friend. She wouldn't lie to her, and Ivy wouldn't betray her by thinking it.

She glanced at Jay. He was walking as far away from her as possible, a cool gaze hiding whatever it was he truly felt. Slick was standing a bit closer, but his face was

guarded, as if he didn't trust himself to not let his real emotions out. Ivy sighed. _Toms! They're annoying one heartbeat, nice the next, and acting totally obnoxious_

_afterwards. _It was _so_ confusing.

They reached a fence. There was a smell there, that Ivy could recognise as her own. Without a word, Slick and Jay helped her find a way over the fence. A few creeping

plants had started reaching up towards the milky dawn sky, and she started climbing with surprising ease for such a young, inexperienced cat. It didn't grow all the way

to the top of the fence, Ivy found herself to be strong enough to jump the rest.

_Her eyes glowed ice__-blue._

She stood on the fence, waving with her tail. "Bye!" The wind whipped away her words, but she was pretty sure they could hear her. She found Jay's eyes, and suddenly

couldn't look away. The sun was lighting them so they shone golden instead of their usual dull green. But they were deep pits of loneliness, as if she'd been his only

friend and he couldn't bear to see her go. He wasn't masking his emotions anymore; Ivy stood on the fence with her back to the sun, meaning he couldn't see whether

she faced him or not; because of the blinding backlight, he only saw her outline.

But she could see him clearly. Jay's shoulders slumped and his golden optics glimmered as if with tears. It was strange how little they could leave unspoken when they

were lit gold and how cold and guarded they looked when they were shadowed green. Everything shone with dew but Ivy didn't thing that dew was what was swimming

in his eyes.

_Turn away from them._ Crystal murmured.

With a last glance at Jay's eyes and Slick's slumping form, she flicked her tail and rushed down the fence to land in her garden, not noticing the way her own optics

gleamed like crystals, doing her best to drive all forest-related, and especially Jay-related, from her mind. She walked up to the cat flap, passed the... _what is it called _

_again? __The door..._ and entered the familiar house.

She mewed loudly. "I'm home!"

_Yes. _Crystal purred, deep inside her head. _You found your way back home._

**OMG that took me ages I'm sorry for the long wait! A few kittypet/citypet chapters ahead, so that might be a bit boring... or will I decide to go on **

**torturing Ivy?**

**Disclaimer (which I seem to forget all the time):**

**Crystalshine - Depressed Jay, say the disclaimer.**

**Depressed Jay - No, I'm too depressed.**

**Crystalshine - *Looks at Depressed Jay's depressed face* No kidding. Just say it already.**

**Depressed Jay - Give me _one _good reason why I should.**

**Crystalshine - Since me and Crystal have ultimate power over this story MUAHAHAHAHAHA! we could make a badger attack you... *Stares into space* **

**Yeah I like the sound of -**

**Depressed Jay - Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors nor does she claim to! Otherwise Bluestar's warrior name would have been Bluemoon.**

**Crystalshine - That's right, Bluemoon sounds much cooler than _Bluefur. _Promise, no badger attacks... *smirks evilly***

**Yup, you guys have seen how great I am at keeping my promises, but this time, I swear I'll keep it. **

**Maybe... Joke I will, I couldn't do that to Jayjay.**

**Until next time!**

**B  
Y  
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** ~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW, FOLLOW, FAVOURITE!)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello I'm back! Here's some amazingly unboring kittypet/citypet chapter! The words in italics are the words that wild cats don't use.**** I do try my best to **

**make this story interesting, but I'm not a superpowerful superfast-typing super-human, so please review?... So how bout a haiku this time for the **

**disclaimer? Join me at ****the bottom of this page for a haiku-disclaimer! **

_Chapter 11_

_Ivy purred in her warm_ _basket_. Her Townfolk's kits were tickling her again, but she was glad to be home, and purred along with their squeals of

pleasure as she squirmed, trying to catch the brightly coloured feather that they were tickling her with, because she knew they liked it.

She couldn't stay here all day though; it would be mind-numbingly boring. So she stood up and reached for the piece of string that a small ball was

tied onto and pawed it gently, hoping to get the kits to understand she wanted to play Chase instead of Tickles. She mewed loudly, and they picked

the _Chase_-_object_ up, dangling it in the air. Ivy jumped high, recognising her name among their mews of laughter and encouragement, claws out,

concentrating on nothing but the game, her vision narrowing down to the ball until her entire attention was focused on it. She launched herself off the

ground in a tremendous leap and caught it with all four paws, refusing to let go and batting softly at the kits as they tried to retrieve it, blinking cute

eyes at them in the hope that they would leave her alone so she could sneak out.

After a while, they got tired and got back up the _stairs _to their _bedrooms_, the _rooms_ that she was allowed in the least often as she slept in the _kitchen_. She wished she

could have a _bedroom_ to herself, though she didn't quite need such a big _bed. _

Ivy went out of the cat flap in the _back_ _door_ (there was also one in the _front_ _door_ but she couldn't use that since she'd be seen) and into the _garden_. She hadn't dreamt

of Crystal last night, but she wasn't worried. In fact, the young she-cat was confident that her friend would come back soon. She made up her mind to _try _and dream

herself into the Land of Stars that night.

But she had other cats to meet, cats she hadn't seen in a while and who would probably be wondering where she was.

She used the hole under the fence to get into Mittens the old cat's garden and walked out using the portal that sat in the garden, covered in rust from lack of use. It was

the way she always used if she wanted to leave unnoticed, and she squeezed between the bars as if she'd done it all her life, which she actually had.

She walked the pavements with confident ease, unafraid of what Slick and Jay had called monsters and Thunderpaths, but which she had recently learnt were really

named cars and roads. She reached the meeting point before all the others. Her tail flicked in excitement. She was about to see the cats of the Band again!

She'd missed them, especially Rose, a golden she-cat with swirling black markings and sparkling amber eyes. They had always found it funny that both their names were

related to nature when most Town cats were called Pixie or Princess, or Cesar, like the leader of the Band. She shuffled her paws impatiently. Would they be late? As she

sat there wondering when they would arrive, and if they even would, though she found it hard to believe that they would disBand **(haha get it? Dis-BAND :'D)** if only

one of them went missing. Besides, she wasn't missing anymore; she was waiting for a new day of fun to start.

She'd sometimes thought that the Band was a bit silly, as they spent their day fooling around annoying dogs and Townfolk alike by stealing food and pulling faces from

the safety of the fences, though none of them would ever dream of walking the rooftops; that was far too dangerous. As her mind wandered off, a voice screamed as

loud as possible right into her ear.

"HI IVYY!" After recovering from a near-heart attack, Ivy let out a big sigh. It was Hermes... _again_. He was a dedicated prankster, and

if the Band got into trouble, it was most likely his fault. Falling from fences into a Townfolk table in the middle of a meal... Jumping down from safety to get to see a

dog close up... Slipping in pools while crossing roads... You name it. Ivy was surprised he went to the _vet_ so little, and even more so to see that he was still alive after

a few days. He sat down next to her, his dark brown pelt about half a mouse-length from her own cream-splotched tabby fur.

"So, where did you go?" Without waiting for an answer, he swept on. "The others were convinced that you weren't coming back or something, like your Townfolk had

moved or something. I was sure you just got yourself into trouble or something, as usual." _What? _Ivy fought the urge to try out Slick's cool fox-fighting moves on him

and swipe the grin off his smug muzzle. _He _was the one always in trouble!

"Yeah I got lost in the forest, hunted for myself, fought huge wildcats who eat bones for breakfast. Fun few days." _Or something. _She muttered under her breath,

mimicking his style of speech.

Hermes' eyes widened until it wouldn't have surprised Ivy if they swallowed up his whole face. "You did?"

"Not really," Ivy admitted, "you're just that gullible. I did hunt though." she added. Her annoying friend wrinkled his nose.

"Eww, I bet mice tasted horrible or something, with all the fur and the bones." He looked like he'd just swallowed dog food. _A second time. _"And _blood_ or something."

Ivy didn't bother telling him it actually tasted better than the Town cat food that they were fed; he'd just stare at her like she was mad. _His _Townfolk gave him roast

_chicken_ sometimes. She wished hers did, it smelled amazing.

"What did you do all day?" Hermes decided to irritate her further with his pointless questions. "Did you just lie around or something?"

"I battled foxes, hunted squirrels that were bigger than you, and killed a few dogs." She was slightly changing the reality, but Hermes didn't seem to notice anything

strange even though he had his own experience with dogs, and, following the episode of landing inside one's garden, was lucky to still have his tail.

"Wow." Was his bottom jaw going to hit the floor? "That must have been cool or something."

Ivy rolled her eyes and sighed. She could do nothing except wait for the others and try not to murder Hermes.

* * *

"Cesar!" Ivy rushed up to the white-and-gold, yellow-eyed tom, purring. At last, some other cat than the eternally chattering Hermes! At least when the leader of the

Band spoke, it was to say something interesting or useful, not _'or something'. Unlike some cat I could mention. _Cesar looked pleasantly surprised.

"Where were you all this time?" He asked. "We thought, maybe your 'folks had moved." He spoke that way, using as little words as possible and not going into detail

unless it be absolutely necessary. Ivy knew he thought that words were important, but had lost that importance as cats started using them lightly, and far too much. His

father's mother was constantly rambling on about it. That was why he was almost constantly annoyed at Hermes. Ivy could relate to that last bit.

"Well I got lost in the forest, the one near my house." Ivy explained. "I got lost a bit but I survived." Cesar seemed to be pleased with her answer, maybe it was

because it was so brief.

Rose arrived afterwards. She ran up to Ivy and rubbed her nose to hers. No words were needed anymore, they'd known each other since what felt like forever. Rose,

unlike the others, never asked where she'd gone. She trusted her enough to know that she'd never intentionally leave her alone. Ivy appreciated that, and made a

mental note to tell her - the truth of course, not the half-lie she'd made up for the others to swallow. Rose was great, and Ivy breathed in her familiar scent as the last of

her regret for coming back faded. Her friend would make it worth losing Jay and Slick. And maybe, just maybe, she'd see them again, one day. She would.

She _knew _it.

**End of chapter! Dun dun duuun whatever. Umm has anyone got this feeling that when a character's so certain about something then the opposite will **

**happen? Not planning to stop Ivy from ever seeing Jay again... Probably... Or maybe something _worse_.**

**Haiku disclaimer:**

**I don't own Warriors**

**As I'm not seven people,**

**Unlike the Erins.**

**°Go wild for Crystalshine's amazing talent! (sarcastic, if I didn't make it obvious enough)°**

**Crystalshine - Otherwise Spottedleaf wouldn't have died a second time *breaks down crying* Noooo Spottedleaf you promised you'd wait for Firestar in**

**StarClaaan TT_TT!**

**B  
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~Crystalshine of LightClan (or is it Crystal, planning the Clans' downfall?) REVIEW!  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**And** **HELLO people! I am BACK! Ivy is getting ready to, if you remember, try to dream about Crystal! By the way, I changed the name because I thought it was pretty lame, so tell me what you think! (that means REVIEW!)**

**penpaper - glad you like it, it was my exact aim!**

**Chapter 12! You have no idea how much it means to me that I've actually managed to not discontinue this story or just forget about it altogether ( cause there are a lot of things that I just forget and however long it took me to update, speaking of which I'm really really really sorry ) !**

_Chapter 12_

_Ivy yawned hard, exhausted after _a day of running around with the Band's cats. She was stumbling back home, the darkness of the night cut through with harsh orange light from lampposts, her eyes shining dark blue, thinking about her amazing adventures and how much she'd have to tell Crystal when she went to sleep.

She crossed a road, took a right turn, and walked straight, ignoring three side turns. On the fourth she turned left, and she saw her house. It was white, so white it reflected the light of the nearest lampposts, and seemed to gleam in the dark. _I can't wait for sleep, _Ivy thought, with another huge yawn.

She pushed the cat flap open and found herself in the reception room. She walked a few steps down the corridor and turned into the first room on the left. The hard floor felt cold against her pads, and she tried to step quicker, and to lift her paws longer to escape the uncomfortable contact. She finally curled into her basket, shuffled into into the warm blankets, closed her eyes, and willed herself to sleep, thinking hard about Crystal and the Land of Stars.

_Crystal nuzzled Ivy as she materialised. "You came!" the young she-cat purred. "I find it hard to reach you in the Twol-the Town, but if we both try, looks like we manage to still meet up!"_

_Ivy nodded in agreement, happy to know that her friend hadn't chosen to leave her hanging. _

_"You want to see something cool?" Crystal suggested._

_"What?" Hermes' 'cool stuff' had taught her to be wary of that kind of question. She suppressed a shudder at the memory of him doing a roll right in the middle of a road, nearly getting flattened by cars in the process._

_"Remember what Slick did when he fought the fox?" _

_Ivy pricked up her ears. "Yes!" It hadn't even crossed her mind to wonder how Crystal had come by that information._

_"Did you like it?" At her friend's positive response, Crystal added: "I can show you how if you want."_

_It sounded like a challenge, as if Crystal was daring her to accept. Ivy gave herself a mental shake. _I'm too competitive. _She slitted her eyes to match the other she-cat's. "Sure." She would do her best and hope to be able to show off in front of her Band friends. _

_Her time in the forest, though short, had made her leaner and stronger than the other housecats of the Town, and that thought brought her a purr of satisfaction. She had the right technique for hunting, even though she had never actually tried she was certain she could do it. Fighting couldn't be much harder. Crystal would show her the moves; she'd prove to Crystal that she could copy them._

_"I'll demonstrate the forepaw swipe, you just need to stand there." Crystal announced ."I won't use my claws, don't want anycat to get hurt, do we." _

_Ivy stood up from her sitting position. Her friend was already flying at her with incredible swiftness, flashing out a paw that missed her muzzle but that she was sure would have knocked her clean out should it have reached its goal. Crystal jumped out of reach and dropped into a low crouch as she landed with much more skill than a cat her age should possess, like she was either much older, or had been train_

_ Ivy was impressed; if this hadn't been her friend, she would have been afraid of the growling cat in front of her._

_"Wow!" Ivy was so excited. _I'll know how to do this by the end of tonight! _"I want to try that!"  
_

_The white she-cat was now sitting down, licking a front paw as if nothing had happened. "You will," she promised, "but first, I have to assess your level. Now you know what to expect, try to defend yourself. I'll be using the same move, you just rely on instinct. I'll let you think about what you could do for a while. _

She's going to come at me full frontal. Then she'll slash - with her right forepaw - and dart out. I need to either back away real quick... or rear up on my hindlegs to protect my face with my paws but I can't do that... or maybe leap at her as she leaps at me, she's more slender than I am, I could bowl her over, and aim for her left side.

_"I'm ready." Ivy decided._

_She had barely finished her sentence and Crystal leapt at her, hardly leaving her any time to react. Ivy jumped into the air, making sure not to leap straight up or her friend would topple her over easily. Aiming for the left, she was astonished to see Crystal flashing out her left paw instead of her right. She fell heavily onto the ground, her nose stinging where the pure white paw had connected._

That was unexpected.

_Disappointed that all her calculations had come to nothing, Ivy lowered her eyes to hide the anger, at Crystal simply for having superior fighting skill, and mainly at herself for getting beaten, that flashed. Too many cats - _cough, Hermes, cough - _already thought she was an antisocial, bad-tempered dog, which wasn't even true! The talkative brown tom just spent far too much time 'socialising'! Why couldn't he blame _himself _if everycat was annoyed at him for his constant babbling and clumsiness?_

_Her mind was wandering again, seeking to heap all the , just like it always did when she automatically tried to zoom out from the shame and into something that could direct her rage at somecat else._

_Crystal looked like she was fighting to keep a smug expression off her face. "I saw where you were looking," she started, "so I knew that you'd try to strike me instead of just defending yourself, and exactly what you'd do. Plus, I surprised you by jumping at you slightly before you were ready." _

_So that was why Crystal had the upper paw this whole time! _I'm predictable. Next time, I'll double feint; she'll be expecting me to just simply feint.

_With that in mind, Ivy nodded at Crystal and started to count down. "Three... Two... O-"_

_Her friend leaped before the countdown was over, but Ivy had been expecting it. She too had jumped toward Crystal earlier than she was supposed to. It crossed her mind that that wasn't very loyal, but as she feigned to stare at Crystal's left side, darting her eyes to the right as if her attention had slipped, to give the white cat the impression she was going to aim for there, and instead dealt a heavy blow to the left shoulder, she realised that... She didn't really care._

_She'd won. _Winning is everything, _she told herself._

_Her swipe had been strong enough to knock Crystal off balance, and she was lying on her flank looking dizzy. Ivy felt power surging through her, flooding her, taking over, that she hadn't known was there. She shook her head to clear the stupid thoughts from it._

I'm just a housecat. I'm not _powerful._ That was just a severe stroke of luck. _And, on these wise words, she trotted over to Crystal's side to ask if she was okay._

_"I"m fine, don't you worry about me." Crystal winced slightly. Was it just Ivy's imagination, or did the stars flicker? "I've been much worse than this." She heaved herself to her paws, congratulating Ivy on how well she'd fought and how she'd been totally fooled by her clever tactic. The tabby-and-cream she-cat basked in the approval that swam in her gaze._

_She barely noticed that her friend was limping, or that the moon kept mysteriously disappearing. She'd wake up with cramps and aching muscles, but she'd beaten Crystal, who already seemed to have had a lifetime of experience and skill, and that showed that she wasn't as helpless as she could seem._

And, _she couldn't help but think, _I'll get to show off in front of the other Band cats!

_But her hopes were crushed as her white-furred friend mewed:_

_"Don't talk about this to anyone," she ordered, "not even your friend Rose." She reconsidered a heartbeat. "And especially not that nosy Hermes."_

_Ivy was disappointed, but she tried not to let it show on her face and nodded._

_"Okay," she agreed, "It'll be _our _secret."_

**What did you think? Sorry for taking so long to update, life get****s in the way of writing. Don't you ever wish there was a 'pause' button for your life and you could just press it and do anything you want during that time? You could press pause right before your teacher collects homework and do it with them holding their hand out in front of your desk, that would be so cool. Wish _I _had one of those. I could write more and you'd get two updates a day!**

**Crystalshine - Hermes, say the disclaimer.**

**Hermes - Okay, did you know that I get chicken and cream or something for breakfast everyday or something? And did you know or something that my friend Gucci lives in a huge -**

**Crystalshine - Yeah, just say it already.**

**Hermes - Did you know that Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors or any of the original characters that may appear? Which they won't because she just made up about 30 cats for ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan and WindClan each so she won't need to use the Erins' (and maybe something else?).**

**B**  
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** ~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW FOLLOW FAVOURITE!)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello everyone, well, number 13 so expect what you'll expect, if it's your lucky number, be optimistic, you know it could only bring happiness to our ****_kitty_****. If it's an unlucky number to you, hope for the best, even if you think the worst will befall Ivy in this chapter. I'm sorry if any of the sentences in the following chapter are in any way offensive, I'm just making it the way people behave at school sometimes, because me and my friends have also been targeted, like a lot of others.**

* * *

_"I'll be with you always, for the better and for the worst."_

* * *

_Chapter 13_

_Ivy stretched, ready for a _new day with her Band friends. Her muscles ached from training with Crystal at night, but she had gotten used to it over the last half moon_. _Her ear still smarted from a particularly violent attack in which her best friend had unsheathed her claws, so she could get 'the real experience' but which Ivy thought had been just an excuse to calm her rage by taking it out on her. If the real experience was hurting all over, she was pretty sure she'd gotten it enough. She hoped Crystal would be calmer next time.

But she knew they were still friends as well as sparring partners. At the end of each session, Crystal would just stop, give a comment on Ivy's performance, and start checking her and grooming her to make sure she was okay, as if to make up for the hard, almost brutal training she endured. But Ivy didn't mind. She loved the feeling of power that it gave her, though she knew she was nowhere as powerful as her friend, who seemed like an older cat in a young she-cat's body. She was better than the other citypets - she didn't remember when she'd started using that word - but she wanted to be as good as Crystal.

Better.

She shook her head clear of her reverie and hopped lightly out of her basket, rearranging her fur to cover the wounds. She wondered what they would do today. Steal chicken from _picnicking _Twolegs - she wasn't sure where she'd picked up that term either - or maybe crossing four-laned roads again and again just for the rush of adrenaline it gave them.

As she took the familiar path to the meeting spot, she relaxed visibly. She loved the sunlight, the day, flashy colours, really anything anything bright and cheerful. She let the rays of the sun soak into her sleek fur. She was glad the Band only met up in the day - night-time scared the living daylights out of her, she only put up with the Land of Stars because of, well, the _stars._

She had grown considerably stronger, and she was quite obviously leaner and swifter than the other Band cats. She was now the centre of the most daring of the tricks that the Band dared to perform. They had clearly noticed the change that simple battle training had brought, mentally as well as physically, and Ivy couldn't say she hated the attention. It was like a ray of sunshine that was concentrated on her alone - but she didn't tell Crystal.

Her friend could be calm and understanding, but Ivy knew exactly what her response to this would be. She'd look like she'd just aged about a hundred seasons and mew something like: "How foolish can you be? Don't you know that all the light of the sun would burn you if it really was entirely on you?"

When she was in a foul mood, Crystal didn't seem to give a lizard scale whether she showed it or not. She snarled if Ivy asked her, half teasing, if it was tom problems. She'd communicate her already transparent bad mood through renewed aggressivity and fiercer moves, as well as unsheathed claws. Tonight had been the case, and, in her pure-white friend, Ivy had discerned for the first time a darkness that seemed greater than her eight month-old body.

She'd never admit it, not even to herself, but the fury in the ice-blue eyes of her friend had been more terrifying to her than any dark night.

* * *

This time, Lantern had arrived first with Rose. He was waiting, washing a light ginger paw, chatting casually with the gold-and-black she-cat.

"Flirting again, you two?" she teased lightly, loving the look on their faces as what she was implying sank in. "I knew it was coming all along."

She fought the urge to purr out loud at the look of unrestrained, pure horror plastered on their muzzles.

"Ooo," she cooed, "was it supposed to be a _secret?_"

"What?" Rose began.

"NO!" contradicted Lantern fervently, his sandy pelt bristling.

"What's going on?" asked a familiar voice. It was slightly high for a tom, and slightly nervous for a cat surrounded by friends. Gucci always sounded like that. He'd used to speak with a constant quiver in his voice, and that had improved since he'd joined, shortly after Ivy, though his confidence issues were never completely sorted. As every cat knew, he lived in the biggest house in the whole of the Town, and he had light grey fur and a blue collar, matching his eyes, encrusted with very shiny things that he called _diamonds, _that were supposed to be extremely valuable and rare to Twolegs.

Ivy trotted over to him, eyes alight with mischief.

"Rose and Lantern were telling me that they were together at last!" she was well aware she was outright lying, but who cared? She had more actual friendly _fun _during the day than at night in the Land of Stars.

"Oh, that's great!" Whisker looked around to them. "We all expected it, I'm so happy you realised what we all knew since forever."

_Oh, this is too good. _At that point, Ivy was having trouble stopping herself from rolling on the floor in fits of purring, and the looks that Lantern and Rose swapped, as if this was all a conspiracy, were _not _helping. Her whiskers were twitching, so she sat down and pretended to lick it to disguise exactly how much she wanted to laugh her ears off.

She watched them sort it out, Rose shouting how much of fools they all were, and Lantern yowling that, of course they weren't together, just having a friendly chat. Ivy watched from the side, purring lightly, contemplating on how good life was right then. _I wouldn't change it for anything._

* * *

Ivy stood straight on the fence, followed closely by Cesar, then Hermes, who was keeping quiet for once, and then the other Band members. On the leader's small nudge, she started yowling loudly. The cats knew a dog lived there, and they were trying to draw it out to antagonise it from where it couldn't reach them. It was one of the most daring - and most dangerous - tricks of the Band, but also so important to its cats that they tried to pull it on at least one different dog each moon.

The dog, a huge black-and-brown brute, came bursting out of the back door, so fast that Ivy wouldn't have been surprised if it had flown clean off. It was bounding toward the fence. Ivy yowled again. This time, it was a taunt, aimed directly at the slavering dog beneath them.

"Can't get us up here, can you?" she leaned as far down as she dared, so the dog could clearly see the sneer that stretched her features. "Mangy _dog." _She made sure to say _dog _as if it were a horrible insult, she knew it would win her extra points with the Band, who started the traditional _oooooh_'s that always followed a sentence in this context.

Hermes stepped in. "Cowardly hamster-eating, goldfish-heart!"

Ivy was a bit taken aback by his colourful insults, but then she supposed that an eternal blabbermouth like him would come up with those in their sleep, and _oooooh'_ed with the others.

Next, it was Cesar who interrupted. He too leaned down until his muzzle was only a mousetail from the leaping, twisting dog. Ivy thought him quite brave for that, as it was the biggest one she had ever seen. "That's it! Go on throwing yourself at the fence if it's all your life is good for." He deadpanned scathingly. The tabby-and-cream she-cat was impressed, and joined in with the very loud _oooooh_'s that accompanied it.

It was Rose next, and she'd apparently decided to take out her frustration at the fact that no one believed in the friendly nature of her relationship with Lantern on the dog. "You think you're so clever, but you're just a poor mutt with nothing else to do because you're so _pathetic._" She hissed. Ivy knew every cat loved this activity, not only because of the danger, but also because it was a great way of venting their rage at the dogs before they did it to somecat else.

Gucci came afterwards, and lashed verbally at the dog, which continued slamming itself against the fence. "Just look at yourself! You can't even have a _pedigree,_" he taunted, in a rare display of snobbishness.

It was Lantern's go now, and he let them wait for a heartbeat, flicking his tail in and out of the dog's reach as it jumped up for it, nearly taking a bite out of it each time. Then Lantern opened his maw. "You're just _so _ugly, I wonder if it's 'cause of your mom or your dad?" Under collective _oooooh_'s, Ivy led the way in the fence to the the door of the back yard and hopped down behind it, followed by her companions.

Bu the dog did something that none of them had done before to Ivy's knowledge. It had gone after them, and was now slamming itself against the flimsy wooden door.

"Uh oh," some cat muttered, "we're in trouble."

_We hadn't realised._

_"_Quick!" She yowled. "Run, but keep close and follow me!" Immediately, the cats obeyed her order and darted after her like mad rabbits let out of their cage. She skidded around the first corner and heard the sound of wood bursting. The dog was giving chase.

It was already gaining of the slow citypets, of which Ivy was the fittest. Corner after corner, street after street, breath after breath... Ivy feared that each one of those could be her last. But a sense of exhilaration was spreading through her, lending her speed.

After a while, the Band was getting exhausted, and the dog was giving no sign of being tired. Ivy turned another corner, and, in the brief moment she was out of its sight, she slunk into a small, unremarkable alley on the side, followed by the other Band cats. The dog raced past, not noticing them crouching in the darkness.

As everycat got ready to leave, Ivy called out. "Hey, how about we follow it?" A weak protest was heard, but the adrenaline hadn't worn off, and everycat decided to go outside to go after the dog.

The trail was still very fresh, and the dog was just ducking out of sight behind another corner.

They chased it without making too much noise, trying not to be spotted. Ivy knew with a kind of unease that twisted her insides, and a stirring or two of guilt, that they were heading towards her house. Towards the _forest. _But she couldn't wimp out now. It had been her idea. She had a reputation to maintain. And so she ran faster.

Now the walls of the house were visible, recognisable by the ivy that crept up it, unchecked, unlike on the other houses.

Soon the dog darted out of sight... Into the trees. _Can't stop now. _But Ivy couldn't help slowing down, her _sole purpose _being, _of course,_ to wait for her friends, not reluctance to go into the forest at_ all_. When they had all caught up, they had lost a few heartbeats, and the dog had disappeared from view in the thick bushes. She could only watch as her paws carried her into the undergrowth, following the reeking scent trail that the brown spotted brute had left, leaving the others behind as she went faster and faster.

The stench overpowered everything else. All other smells were swamped in its disgusting stink. Maybe that was why she was so shocked at what she saw. She couldn't smell anything. That was probably why she had no idea what she would find behind that holly bush.

There.

It was lying there, in a pool of stinking dog scent that seemed curiously liquid and red. It was a silver, black-marked body. It's dull green eyes were open. But they didn't seem to see. _Is it...dead? _It certainly seemed like it. She could see one ear had been torn off and the paws were scarlet, the pelt stained with crimson. A wound running from throat to tail, jagged and deep, caused by blunt dog claws, was bleeding life out of the cat lying on the ground in a shaft of weak sunlight that poked through the clouds.

This had to be some joke, like the one she'd pulled on Lantern and Rose to tease them. But this was not teasing. If this was a joke, it was cruel. She recognised it. It was Jay.

At least, the rest of the Band was still far behind. She'd hate any of them to see her crying. _Why? _was the question she wished could be answered. She knew this was her fault.

He was still and limp as she pushed pushed her muzzle into his fur, not caring about the blood that soaked her nose. Thunder rumbled in the distace, and suddenly, the whole forest was drenched in rainwater. Then, she drew her face back with a gasp. He was still alive! She could feel shallow breathing under his pelt.

A feeble croak sounded. "Ivy?" He tried to lift his head but couldn't find the strength and let it rest back again. "Don't try. It's too late." He was gasping out the words, barely audible.

"No! I saved Slick, and I'll save you too!"

Curiously, no flash of ice appeared in her eyes as it had done before when she was faced with difficult situations. Her paws fumbled for a drenched cobweb and pressed it desperately to the wound.

"I'm already as good as gone. Don't try." he repeated. Ivy stubbornly refused, but her paws kept slipping with the rain, with none of the deftness that she had worked with on Slick.

"Why can't you stay?" Her voice was so quiet, she could hear it breaking, shattering. She'd abandoned, it was no use. She was useless. She leaned against his sodden fur, searching for warmth that the rain had chased out.

Jay looked up at her, managing to lift his head of the ground. But he couldn't hold it there and dropped it again, slightly away from where it had been before. His eyes flooded with light from a piece of sky that wasn't covered in clouds, and swam with gold. "I'm not really going away." Ivy couldn't draw herself away from his luminous golden eyes. "I'll still be alive in -" he paused to grunt in pain. "in your memory." He finished, and his eyes went dull, the sun lighting them not able to hide the lack of emotion that came with death.

"He's gone." It sounded more like a question. Her voice was almost disbelieving. She didn't believe it. She _couldn't _believe it. He was gone.

She curled up into a ball close to his cooling body in a last effort to keep him warm. As she started to close her eyes, she heard the voices of her Band friends. They sounded shocked, revolted, Hermes was shielding his eyes, Whisker was retching in the bushes.

"You knew him?" That was Cesar. She couldn't care less.

She drifted off, and, in that barrier between sleep and reality, a soft pelt brushed against hers. "I'll never leave you. I will be with you always, for the better and for the worst." A voice mewed softly in her ear. It wasn't cracked with pain, yet it was the mew she had heard only few heartbeats ago before it vanished forever from the real world.

"Jay!" she cried. "Don't go! Why can't you _stay?_"

"You know why. If I could, I would." His voice and presence were fading, and flattened herself to the soft ground, letting out a wail of grief.

And, suddenly, she found herself in a lush green garden. Sunlight brighter than anything she had ever seen filtered through the trees to reach for the pink and blue flowers on the ground in rays. But what retained her attention, however, was not the place. It was the cat.

She was sitting as if she had been expecting Ivy. She was a pretty dark blue-eyed she-cat with a brown tabby-splotched cream pelt. Ivy knew her, and no words were needed. She rushed to her side where her cream-splotched brown tabby pelt merged with the other cat's, and couldn't keep back a yowl of joy.

"Jolie!" she purred harder than ever before. She had her sister back.

"Ivy." She _looked _happy, but she sounded like she was about to announce their mother's death or something like that. "I have to tell you something."

"Aren't you pleased to see me?" Ivy was a bit hurt that her sister was acting cold, though her fur was pressed against hers.

"I am!" Jolie let out a forced-sounding purr. "But what I'm about to tell you is very important. Listen:

"The silver jay has flown away, but a bird of another feather will soon cross the ivy's way.

He heralds the thunder, listen or storms will sink under.

But beware the blood, or it will wash everything in a flood

And beware the holly, for it may choke the ivy.

Thunder will come after, before is the saviour

The forest will flame, and the ivy will take the blame

If the thunder is not won over

And there, at the end, lies darkness."

_What? _Ivy couldn't understand a word she was saying. The silver jay that flew away way obvious: Jay. But "bird of another feather" and "Beware the holly", as well as "The forest will flame , and the ivy will take the blame" made no sense. How could a plant set the forest on fire?

She opened her mouth to ask Jolie to tell her what it meant, but she was already fading away. Ivy could only just make out her sister's last words.

"I will be with you always, for the better and for the worst."

"Don't go!" Why was everycat leaving her today?

Once again, in the place between reality and dreams, she felt a pelt - no, _two _pelts - brush against her.

She collapsed on the half-solid ground, fresh grief washing over her.

_First Jolie... Then Jay. It's my fault he died. I basically set the dog loose, and I should never have left the forest at all!_

And as she was rushed back to the real world, she barely heard the Band talking in hushed voices. Grief filled her ears more than any sound could, a wave of deep blue sadness washed over her and she let herself drown in sorrow.

* * *

_"I'll still be alive... in your memory."_

* * *

**Aww**,** isn't that sad? Before you ask, yes, I was planning to kill Jay all along. Sorry to all those who love - oops, sorry, love_d - _him, ****but it was for plot purposes. I love_d _(yes I really want to rub it in) him too, but here we are, anything for the plot. If anyone wanted to know about that huge long poem that took me about five whole damned minutes to write, 'the ivy' is Ivy (like you hadn't guessed), but what could 'thunder' mean? And why would 'holly' be dangerous to Ivy? In case you were wondering, I do have Ivy's whole life planned out, and it is neither danger-free nor blood-free nor death-free. Should I make it not gluten-free to match? See you next time!**

**B  
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** ~Crystalshine of LightClan**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello, anyone miss me? Just wanted to apologise for being a terrible person and updating once in never. Also STAY AT HOME Coronavirus is dangerous! By the way, I'm really sorry that she's so depressed. HERE is the new chapter!**

_Chapter 14_

_Ivy found herself back inside _her comfy basket at home. Her first instinct was to close her eyes and try to sleep again, to lose her grief along its twisting paths, and to dream of something other than sinking through deep blue water, with waves that crashed over her head ever time it broke the surface.

She was suddenly jerked awake by a very strange thought. Hadn't she been in the forest a heartbeat ago? She'd go visit Rose. It was probably better than drowning sadness, however much she felt like doing it. She heaved herself heavily to her paws and half fell half slithered out of her basket. She slouched out of the cat flap, moving her legs as little as possible. She felt so wretched, so numb, she almost surprised by finding her way to Rose's house.

It was the only pale pink house in the neighbourhood, and pretty flowers in the back yard. The Twolegs already knew her, so they let her in. They pushed towards her a bowl of water, and another one with food. But Ivy ignored them and called loudly for Rose. There was no answer.

_I should have remembered. She'll be at the Band meeting. But then, why does it feel like she's deliberately abandoning me? _

She curled up on the ground tightly in a compact circle in the middle of the kitchen, wishing to be back in the forest with Jay... _Wait. What happened to Jay's body? _She stretched her tail over her nose tighter, trying not to imagine his body being picked over by crows and foxes. She barely felt the cold hard tiles of the blindingly white floor. The green and gold part of her where Jay had been frozen solid, and she thought that nothing would ever hurt more than this icy, blank space.

She'd felt that way when Jolie had died, but seeing her had made it feel like she had died all over again. That added to Jay's horrible death was too much. She wanted to close her eyes and... And what? Sleep had already proved itself to be of no use against grief; it merely passed the time, but if time healed wounds, sleep just held it back.

Nevertheless, she shut her eyes firmly and, hoping the Twolegs wouldn't mind, she let herself fall. Sleep numbed pain. That was all she needed then.

No dreams haunted her sleep this time.

* * *

She pulled back into the reality by a soft dark golden paw. It was shaking her very hard. She opened her eyes to slits and was ready to snarl at whoever had dared to rob her of a few moments more of blissful ignorance. But her friend's amber eyes stared into her own empty dark blue ones, full of pity, and some kind of... Was that _reproach? _

"You," Rose's tail twitched, "have _a lot _of explaining to do."

Ivy screamed an extremely loud curse in her head. She'd entirely forgotten to tell her black-and-gold friend about what had really happened in the forest.

"Ok." she conceded. "Well, when I disappeared, and I went to the forest, I kinda got stuck outside, and I met this really nice tom called Slick - _no don't make that face, he was much older than us! -_ and he saw me trying to hunt he was like, "I'll give you a hunting lesson," because, to be honest, I was sort of terrible. He didn't know the way back to here though. So he met me the day after and we got... attacked. By a fox, you know, these reddish dog-ish things that scavenge in the bins? Well Slick fought it off, and said he was fine, and told me how to cure it, and then showed me a few hunting moves.

"And then, on the second day that we'd agreed to meet, he collapsed and started talking about crystals and..."- Something seemed to click in her head, but she didn't know what - "blue flowers and frost, and he had a fever because of a wound from the fox that got infected. It looked so horrible, but since it was my fault it was that way, I went to find something that could help him, a herb. On my way I met this tom called..."

She stifled a sob and continued. "... called Jay, and he helped me find it and we saved Slick. But then, Jay told me that he knew the way back, and, to say the truth, I wasn't really sure whether to stay or go back. But I chose to go back in the end, and I was so happy, I don't even think I noticed that it made them sad to see me go. That was a bit selfish, now I think about it. But they showed me back to here.

"And then, there was this whole dog thing. Well, the dog - the dog killed Jay! I tried to save him, but I couldn't, and my paws kept slipping because of the rain!" She was leaning heavily against Rose, her muzzle buried into her dark gold fur. "He died." she whispered hoarsely. "He died, and it was my fault. We set the dog loose, if I'd thought to tell Cesar to annoy some other dog on the other side of the Town, Jay would still be alive."

Rose had listened patiently to the very end. But her next words surprised Ivy. "That's a whole load of dog dung. That was obviously _not _your fault, how could you have known that the dog would attack Jay?" Her pelt was bristling, her voice on the borderline of a snarl. Ivy had expected words of pity and sympathy, but Rose was voicing an honest and almost violent truth, or at least, opinion.

But who could she blame, apart from herself? _Cesar. Hermes. Lantern. Gucci. They did most of the 'antagonising the dog' thing. It was_ their fault _that the dog was so mad it burst out of its garden._

"The Band!" She yowled. "It's their fault! They chose this dog, and they made it so angry that it followed us!"

Rose looked a little taken aback, as though this was not exactly what she had meant, but Ivy couldn't care less. She stormed out the cat flap, making it swing wildly as she passed like an angry tornado. She didn't know where she was going. She _really _didn't care. She crossed roads with her head in storm clouds, and passed unintentionally by the Band's meeting spot. She spat and arched her spine. She hated this place. Sh ehated everything!

She rushed away as fast as possibly. She wished that it would stop raining, but if she had looked up she would have seen that the sky was bright and clear. She didn't look up though. She was going so fast. She had no idea where her paws were taking her, but as she neared her own street, her grief-obscured mind started to understand. She jumped over the tree line. Why, she didn't know. It smelled weird, and she went on running. At some moment, the strange scent just stopped abruptly.

She did too.

This area of the forest was too familiar. It gave her... memories. She didn't want to forget them! She didn't realise that they were darkening her mind, that the grief was mewing and walking and _being. _She didn't care. It was simple. She didn't even want too care anymore. She curled up into a ball, and soaked her tears into the ground.

* * *

_"Get up." a voice hissed in her ear. "Get_ up._ Stop acting like a useless lump of fur."_

_Ivy's eyes shot open. A cat with a white pelt that she didn't know was talking to her. It looked unfamiliar, like the white pelt was black underneath and the icy eyes hid a burning, evil, fire. She jumped back in fright, and suddenly, she recognised the feline._

_"Crystal?" she whispered, feebly._

_A pure white cat leapt out of the star-flecked bushes. Her identical icy blue eyes were sparkling with a light that Ivy would soon know well. The light of battle. _

_The other cat's eyes, however, were slitted into twin slashes of hatred. It met the other Crystal in mid-air, clawing mercilessly at her ears. But the second cat stood back up and slashed at the others eyes. She crouched menacingly on the ground, her hackles rising, as the other one fled back into the forest, blood pouring from its eyes where Crystal had struck it._

_"Are you okay?" Crystal jumped to her paws. She didn't seem to have a scratch, despite the hefty blow that the mystery cat had swung at her._

_"Yeah." replied Ivy shakily. The shock of the attack mixed with Jay's death was a lot to handle in only a day or two. If she had been honest, she would have answered "No". She struggled not to sway on her paws. "Yeah. I'm okay."_

_"Are you sure you're alright?" her friend asked gently, her eyes round with compassion. As Ivy tried to nod, she added. "Sometimes, other cats come here. I don't know where they come from, who they are or what they want. But they're evil. Stay close to me... and away from them."_

_Ivy made a brave attempt at a nod again. But the thought that even here, in the Land of Stars, she wasn't safe... it chilled her to the bone._

**Hi again! Hope you liked it and it wasn't too depressing! I'm sorry this took so long to get out, sooo much homework and video conferences, an stuff from school, I hate this confinement thing so much. At least it's the holidays now (I go to a french school)... but I'd planned to go for the full two weeks to Portugal... even if the flight hadn't been cancelled it was dangerous for my grand-parents.**

**Coronavirus is clearly doing no good to anyone, I hope it'll go away soon, and in the meantime, I look at memes to try and forget about it... though half of them are about coronavirus, so it's not much use.**

**See ya next time!**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW! I cannot stress this enough, REVIEW!)**


	15. Chapter 15

Hello** it's me again! So, if you want to distract yourself from this bloody coronavirus, you have come to the right place! This is where you watch the little citypet grow into... whatever she's going to grow into, did you actually think I'd give that away :'D?! OK well here is the chapter! This will be a peek into Ivy's training session with Crystal, and then... what next? I don't know yet. It's funny you can have your character's whole life planned and you struggle so much with the tiny details. I have a tiny surprise in there for you, readers... Well... here goes:**

_Chapter 15_

"Come on," encouraged Crystal gently, "_you can_ _do it!"_

_Ivy gave a groan and heaved herself to her paws. Had she really fallen to the ground? She hadn't realised. "I'm fine," she said, with as much strength as she could muster in her weakened state. "Let's start."_

_Crystal looked surprised that Ivy would still want to train, but she didn't complain. Ivy, however, suddenly felt stupid. She didn't really feel up to another fierce training session, especially not if her friend was already warmed up and ready from her previous battle with the unknown cat. She closed her eyes as if that would drive the image of the violent fight out of her mind. Instead, all it did was bring the image of another cat, lying limp and cold, blood seeping from savage wounds beneath the torn silver, dark-marked fur. She felt like gagging at the memory. _

_"Are you really sure you're up for this?" Crystal narrowed her eyes. She may have seen the retching motion Ivy had made. "Because _I'm_ not so sure."_

Not really like there's any backing out now, is it. _She'd have to lie._

_"Yeah. Course I'm fine." _Hope for the best. _"I'm great. I'm up for anything." Ivy felt herself slightly swaying, and fought to stay firmly standing. She couldn't let the world topple over again. She was definitely not the best at acting. Now she wished she'd gotten round to this acting training thing she was supposed to do with Slick. She cursed at herself for thinking about it; it brought back memories of saving him, with the help of a certain silver cat with black ripples across his fur and strange green-gold eyes. _

_She planted her paws in the ground and fell swiftly into the familiar attack crouch. Her paws were more apart than for hunting; if an opponent threw itself at her, she wouldn't be unbalanced so easily. Her tail was tucked in close to her flank, in case an attacker decided to try and bite it as it stuck out. Her ears were lowered rather than pricked for the sounds of prey; it would help if her adversary tried to shred them. _

_She was rather proud of that crouch and how quickly she had gotten it. She didn't really have anything to compare it to but by her own standards, it was pretty great, though Crystal sometimes came up to nudge her back into place, which happened less and less frequently. She tried not to puff her chest out in pride as it could automatically lift her head, displaying her throat for anycat to have fun tearing out, and would lose her points with Crystal which might help her to get an easy training session tonight._

_She couldn't have been more wrong. The second her friend flew at her, she knew Crystal had absolutely no intention of going easy on Ivy._ I'll just fight harder then.

_She couldn't explain the determination that streaked through her, but she rose to meet the attack full on with the glinting of unsheathed claws, unlike that first time. She had come so far since then. _I'll go further yet, _she promised herself, as she swung a heavy blow into a startled Crystal's jaw, sending her tumbling in the starry grass. She hadn't expected Ivy to be as strong. _

**_Crystal's POV (SURPISE!)_**

_She jumped back to her paws, but this time, she circled Ivy slowly, hissing like a snake about to attack. Her lean body coiled and prepared for the inevitable moment when her friend would spring at her. Ivy leaped._

_But Crystal knew her fighting style: direct, in general not sneaky, she'd rather meet any attack full on. Her weakness lay there: predictability. She would only feint rarely, and would probably prefer not to fight dirty in any way. Some day, it would be her undoing. It was Crystal's job to prevent that... at least until she could turn it to her advantage. _

_She rolled skilfully out of the way and sprang back up, agile and soundless. While Ivy was stunned by her hard fall into the floor instead of the soft pelt she had no doubt been expecting, she crept up behind her. She jumped onto her back and unsheathed her claws, which she'd kept in because of the risk of them being torn out, another little secret that she wouldn't tell Ivy until she was certain it would be beneficial to her own twisted plans. As much as she may look like a young cat, she wouldn't act like one and blab to boast._

_She raked her hind claws half-mindedly against Ivy's spine. She was thinking about something else. Slick. _I'll have to visit him later, can't have him thinking I'm ignoring him again.

_And Ivy was lucky Crystal's mind wasn't entirely on the fight, or she would have lost half the fur on her back until it all rested between Crystal's sharp claws as a painful reminder. She didn't know it but she was also lucky because of something else. As the white-furred she-cat turned Ivy over to claw at her chest, she thought that Ivy was very lucky not to wake up with the injuries that she received in sleep. Yet._

_You see, Crystal was waiting for the turning point that she knew would come soon enough to start testing her to the limit and leaving her the wounds that she inflicted nightly. The one that would change her life, and that of her descendance, and the one that could change the Clans' world. And she, Crystal, would make sure that no cat stood in the way that she would forge for Ivy, a path she was already making. Pawstep by pawstep, she'd get there, thanks to her brand new puppet, Ivy. And then, when she was on top of the destroyed world of the Clans, she would lick dirt over it and discard the used puppet Ivy into the smouldering ashes and the red embers. _

_She would take revenge. No matter what the cost was. She had already lost everything, and she would destroy the Clans for what they had done._

**Hi again, so as you can probably see, Crystal is, as we get to know her, starting to morph into some kind of Mapleshade type character, and if you look closely, you'll notice I made Ivy a distinctly Gryffindor cat, though it doesn't matter that much. As a Slytherin, I'll probably get bored of writing her to get on to a more, let's say, spicy, Slytherin main character, no offence to anyone who isn't Slytherin. But you can expect at least twenty more good chapters until I move on to something else... As a matter of fact, Crystal isn't a Slytherin, but a Ravenclaw, the whole incredibly ingenious plan for taking over the world, and the fact that she is me, aka omniscient writer, Crystal does know what will happen, and it might happen almost exactly as she wanted... Leaving you here wondering. Also I have no idea how the Harry Potter Houses came in there... I guess I just let them... _Slytherin..._**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (forgive the terrible fun and REVIEW I know most people don't review, but I honestly don't have that many readers, can't say I'm too happy about that, so please review, and don't think I'm pathetic, I am _not _begging for reviews. REVIEW!)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi this time I'll put the disclaimer because somehow I get sort of lost in the story and exactly what I want to happen. List of exclusive sneak peeks:**

**-Ivy will not stay fixated on Jay, she will move on with someone you will meet (but probably not expect) in possibly ten or so chapters, though she will always have a fear of dogs**

**-She will have a second run-in with the Clans, which you might already have suspected since you knew Crystal was planning to use Ivy to destroy them**

**-Slick will get to play his part, and it will be important too**

**-I'll probably make a sequel about Ivy's daughter**

**-Unfortunately, unfriendly rogues do show up, because a) I need them for plot purposes, and b) they're fun and they make more fight scenes. Though this isn't much of a sneak peek, because it starts... right now in this chapter.**

**Mintflight0245- I'm so happy you like my story! I have as much fun writing it as you seem to have reading it. Your review made me really happy, it's made my day! I'll check out your story too ;) Thanks for the favourite! My first ever!**

**See ya at the end, where I will hopefully not have forgotten the disclaimer again. *bumps head against desk in frustration that she always forgets the _freaking disclaimer.*_**

_Chapter 16_

_Ivy lay in the sunshine, _loving the way it warmed her fur and made her pelt look shiny. She purred as she finished the last bite of the squirrel she had caught earlier on in the day, burying the few bones that were to big for her to swallow without choking. She stretched luxuriously as sun rays rippled across her sleek fur. It was thick and well groomed, reflecting the sun. Muscles, barely hidden behind a thin layer of citypet fat that stubbornly remained, relaxed into her otherwise awkward stance.

She could hunt; she could fight; therefore she could survive, out there, in the hostile wild. Although it didn't seem all that threatening when it was all sunny and warm like this. Everything was lit up, and light seemed to fill the forest to the brim. It was already two moons since she had come back to the forest, and she had made the decision to stay. She couldn't face the Band again, and she didn't even know if they would accept her after vanishing a second time. She was happy in the forest. It wasn't a particularly safe place, but as Leaf-season wasn't far off, it was warm, and sunny, and so far, her luck had held.

She had sometimes heard or vaguely seen or smelled other cats, but, remembering Slick's advice, had kept well out of their way. Predators had enough to eat in their own territory, and she had now grown big enough that most foxes wouldn't attack her unless they were starving. Life was good, and it only showed signs of getting better. She was certain that almost no wild cat would realise that she wasn't forest-born now; she felt like she belonged here from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail.

She stopped stretching and started walking away, trying not to make too much noise, and succeeding, so as to hear anycat approaching before they heard her, or not to scare of prey that some other cat could be stalking. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, because she was pretty sure that she still couldn't take on a grown cat, though she beat Crystal more and more often.

Her mind wandered freely, her paws moving on their own on the now familiar paths of the forest. She let down her guard, submerged by thoughts on how leaving the City had been the best decision for her, that she was close to where Jay had lived and died... But had he? She hadn't known much, or enough, about him. She remembered, though, that he didn't like speaking about his family, and that every time he talked about his past, a shadow would obscure those strange green-gold eyes. She hadn't even found his body.

Then... She bumped into something. She closed her eyes against the pain: she had collided head-on with whoever it was, and they seemed to be in pain too. The cat smelled familiar though.

"Slick?" She didn't believe it; after all the time she had spent searching for him!

"Wait - what?" He mumbled. He had fallen into a clump of brambles and was doing his best to get out. "Ivy? Can you help me?"

Carefully avoiding the sharp thorns, bit away a few stems that were tangled in his fur and paws. Now he could get up, and he could explain why she hadn't found him in two moons. She said so.

"Well," he meowed, between licks of his not-so-slick black fur, "I found... I found a body. It was Jay... I could smell cats on it, but I got a bit confused, because..." Slick swallowed. "Because he's obviously been caught by a dog, there was only cat scent. Anyway, I buried him. I kept vigil, because, even though I didn't know him well, he saved my life, so -"

"Wait," Ivy interrupted, "what's a vigil?"

Looking mildly surprised, Slick answered. "Well it's when you knew a cat well, or you owe them in some way, and they die, you sit with the body without sleeping on the night following the death. Most cats prefer to hide the scent of death with rosemary and lavender. You in general reminisce over memories you shared, and groom their pelts and arrange them so it looks like they're sleeping. And you bury them at dawn."

Suddenly, Ivy wished she had been able to do that for Jay.

"After that, I didn't really feel like staying. I needed to sort myself out after Jay's death and... other stuff that's been happening." He added evasively. "So I left. I wanted to travel again, but much further than before and of my own free will."

_Well that's a lot of secrets in one sentence. What other stuff? What does he mean, travel _again? _And of his own free will? Sounds like he was forced to travel. But isn't travelling a choice that you make if you want to see the world? _Confused, Ivy decided not to ask him questions which he didn't seem like he would be comfortable answering.

"So when I was travelling, I settled down in a place very far away from here. I was quite happy there. But I soon realised that my home is here, and that I missed it. So I came back." Slick finished licking out the last thorns. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, nothing half as interesting as you." She knew she was lying but Crystal had told her not to tell anycat about their dream meetings. "I -"

Something jumped out at them. Two more shadows followed. "What are you doing here?" The first cat, a huge, light grey tom, demanded. "This is Blood territory."

Behind him, a black, green-eyes she-cat, and a shaggy-pelted dark brown tom with brilliant amber eyes swished their tails and raised their hackles, ready for attack.

**The timeline is _not _the one that I set before. Redtail and Dustpaw appeared but imagine some other cats were there. This is far before Firestar's time, but after SkyClan was driven out. AU where BloodClan was formed around the time of Dawn of the Clans, and is named Blood because I guessed that it was Tigerstar's idea to make their name into a Clan name. Hope that Ivy gets out alive, because they're just as fierce as they are before they are defeated. Leaving you hanging ;)**

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~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW!)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Well I** **promised that chapters with numbers ending in 7 will include a different and interesting POV... This is a cat whose mind you are used to seeing into, but who has this horrible way of not admitting anything, even to himself, so we never find out enough, which is, essentially, my job. Have you guessed? Here we go!**

_Chapter 17_

**_Slick's POV_**

_They were drawing closer, like _those memories that Slick tried so hard to keep at bay. He knew them. He recognised the big tom and the she-cat, the other tom must be a newer addition. He could only pray that _they _didn't recognise _him. _He was a deserter. If they did remember him, he would die.

He could hear Ivy trying to argue with the big tom, whose name he thought was Stone. He couldn't let her do that. _She'll get _shredded!

He pushed in front of her to tell her to give it up and do whatever they wanted. Ivy looked like she was about to argue with him, too, then she seemed confused.

"Okay...?"

Stone led the she-cat, Night, he thought her name was, and the small tom out of the clearing, glaring at Slick and Ivy over his massive shoulder and growling at them to follow. As they obeyed, Night and the skinny tom slowed down to get behind them. Slick wasn't blind; and though he hated to admit it, he had recognised that technique straight away. Most cats wouldn't notice that they were making sure that they had no way of escaping, and would think that they were lagging behind, and were, therefore, not on top form.

But they couldn't fool _him. _He had been raised the same as them: among lies and blood, and sneaky, dirty fighting. But, another advantage of this technique, he couldn't talk to Ivy at all, or they would hear him; he couldn't even slow down to get further away from the others and have an opportunity to explain to Ivy what they were doing.

They were led in silence over ditches and fallen trees, ducking under low-growing branches and strangely shaped rocks. Slick tried to recognise the way but failed. _Blood land... _he realised they must have moved their camp, but whether temporarily or permanently, he couldn't tell. He guessed he would know when he saw it. They followed Stone across leafy glades and sunny meadows which warmed his pelt uncomfortably. He would much rather have a chilly, darkish place with a breeze. It would be so easy to just slip away, melt into the shadows...

But Ivy's pelt was more visible than his in the dark, and, anyway, it was Leaf-season, when it was too sunny, too warm, and too light for too long. _Give me Fall-season any day! _He hated how the heat seemed to get under his thick pelt and appeared to have a nasty habit of staying there, and how the sun was shining directly into his eyes on purpose. It was impossible to get an early night because the day persisted in staying much too long instead of just giving way to a calm and cooling darkness.

_I hate Flower-season and Leaf-season. _He grumped as he went along. He didn't know why Ivy, even though she was being led to goodness knew where for goodness knew _what, _looked so happy. Maybe she liked it. He shuddered, and, as he breathed in, pollen got into his nose again, making him sneeze. Stone whipped around suddenly, claws glinting, teeth shown clearly. Then, after assuring himself that they were not going to make a break for it, he turned back and resumed his long, confident strides.

As they presumably got closer to wherever they were being led, Slick realised that a stench that was far too familiar was hanging in the air. It stank of crowfood and prey and cat blood. He shivered in disgust. He's hoped he'd never smell it again, and, if anycat recognised him as the deserter... surely Beetle would remember him! But would he turn him in? They had been best friends, they had trained and slept by each other since they were kittens. Both had lost their littermates at a very young age, and their mother as well. But distance had emaciated their link to a thin cord of shared memories.

As he approached the place where he knew the camp would be, as the reek was getting stronger, anxiety rolled off him in waves, but he tried to stop it. It would make the Blood cats suspicious of why he was so nervous when Ivy seemed rather calm.

It was so close now... he could feel that they were being watched. He felt at least two pairs of eyes staring intently at them; now any attempt at escaping was doomed, not that it wasn't before. He could take three of them at most, but, however well she looked, Ivy could not beat two on her own. And they had Stone on their side. Stone was brute strength; he was head-on attacks with less planning than a dog could do; he was a storm of death on a battlefield, and you could safely guess that, if it was bloody, at least of of the crimson had been spilled by his deadly claws. But he wasn't the leader. The leader of the Blood was known as the Governor, their name was seldom used.

The Governor was not like Stone. He was only the Lieutenant. The Governor was much, _much _worse. Apprehension leaked from his pelt like rain. They were going to be taken to the Governor. Surviving requested acting skills and luck. Fortunately, Slick had already proved to have both. But would they be enough to save his pelt this time? The Governor was an incredibly sharp-minded cat; was it possible that he would be recognised?

The reek was overpowering. They would be escorted into the camp any heartbeat now, speaking of which, Slick's seemed to be abnormally fast. He was sure they were doomed. If he was recognised, the Governor would have them both killed without hesitation. Cruel, heartless, hard, icy, merciless, the Governor was all of them. They would be executed with no further thought.

Luckily, Ivy had no idea what had happened. It was all as well; she would have given it away.

The scent was going to his head... it made him dizzy, in a bad, a _very _bad, way. He had heard of cats seeing things, being transported back to their worst memories, reliving them, powerless to change anything... hallucinations. Just the smell triggered feelings from long ago that he thought he had left behind. But they were catching up.

He had stopped briefly.

"Hurry up." Night nudged him hard from behind. "We don't have all sunround!"

_Doesn't the other one ever talk? _

"Twig! You're lagging behind!" Stone growled, not bothering to look backwards. "We're about to walk in, you don't want to look like the weakling who can't keep up again!"

Slick risked a glance over his shoulder to see that the tom named Twig was in fact slowing down. Was he limping? If so, he was hiding it rather well, but it was slowing him down anyway. _Noted. _This cat was a potential breach in the Blood's security. Any small possibility of escape had to be taken into account.

Night shoved them unceremoniously through the brambles and they were marched into the camp in as stern, solid and stony a silence as the one that had escorted them all the way. They were greeted by a wall of hostility so powerful that Slick nearly stumbled. Strangers were clearly not welcome, as the hateful, belligerent, aggressive glares proved.

_Blood._ He had never really thought about the name. Such a vicious choice... _It should have tipped her off before she decided to join... and look what happened._

He was _in the camp. _The Blood camp. It wasn't the same one as last time, but it was enough. Suddenly, the full realisation of how much danger they were in crashed over him.

Many times, his acting skills had gotten him out of sticky spots; but now, he and Ivy relied on them to keep them both alive.

_No pressure._

**That's right, no pressure. See y'all!**

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~Crystalshine of LightClan**


	18. Chapter 18

**It's almost sad that I can update so much faster than usual because of confinement: it means that the cliffhangers don't work that well anymore T-T**

**WyldClaw - glad to see you liked it!**

**I swear, every time I see that my little Ivy story got a review, I'm so happy that for a second, I think I might literally burst! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!**

**THANK YOU to Lightfeather123456 for the favourite and the follow *throws mini party and dances with computer* (everyone has such cool names OoO)**

**I REALLY NEED TO REMEMBER THE DISCLAIMER THIS TIME! But maybe, too caught up with the excitement that this chapter will, no doubt, bring, I'll forget, once again. Well I'm happy to write, you're happy to read, and we'd both be happy if you reviewed! Reviews are the connection between the reader and the writer; so REVIEW!**

**On with the chapter (I honestly have nearly no more of an idea about what will happen than you do lol)**

_Chapter 18_

_The strange cats walked Ivy _and Slick into a ridiculously stinky and crowded clearing. Dens were woven into a bramble wall. Hers was different: it was a converted juniper bush, with a widened rabbit hole at the end to provide an escape should anything ambush her, but which she hoped she'd never use. She _really _didn't like cramped spaces, and she _really _didn't like the dark.

Hostile glares gleamed at them from all sides, indicating clearly that those cats did not take kindly to strangers.

_I wonder what they'll do with us._

Suddenly, Ivy understood the scent of fear that came off Slick. Dog claws and cat teeth glimmered dully at their citypet collars, so that, instead of making them look like soft, pampered kitties, they had the air of seasoned combatants. _Dog claws... They killed dogs? And the cat teeth... Oh no._

If these cats decided that they didn't like her and Slick, they'd be torn apart. A few unsheathed claws gleamed, and she saw that some were reinforced with dog teeth and claws. One wrong word, one misplaced action, one loud breath, and they would die. Painfully. Like Jay.

But how had Slick, if the fear-scent that came of him was any indicator, guessed the danger they were in before seeing what they were up against? She'd have to take it up with him... if - if they were still alive.

"Night - who are they?" A black she-cat with gleaming amber eyes asked the other black she-cat who was escorting them. Ivy guessed they were sisters.

"Some trespassers we picked up, Shadow." Night responded. "We're taking them to see the Governor."

Shadow visibly shuddered. _Whoever this Governor cat is... they don't sound like some cat you'd like to meet. And we're being taken to them... This is looking bad. Let's hope Slick knows what to do._

Questions were being asked to Night and the other two toms, distracting them for a moment. She felt a light touch on her shoulder and nearly jumped, but it was just Slick.

"Let me do the talking," he whispered quickly, looking straight ahead to disguise the fact that he was talking to her, "and if they ask you questions, back up what I said."

Ivy could only nod mutely at Slick's words before their escort managed to shoulder their way through the cats that all seemed to want to know who they were, where they came from, what they wanted, why they were trespassing, how they had gotten into their territory, and a whole lot of other things that Ivy barely understood a word of.

"Shove off unless you want a scarred muzzle," growled the massive grey tom leading, "we have to take them to the Governor." He shot a nasty look over his huge shoulder at Ivy and Slick, as if he was hoping to see them executed before sundown.

At his words, the mob of curious and angry cats recoiled, some shivering like Shadow had. What could be so terrible about the Governor that even a simple mention of them made so many cats that afraid?

In a now entirely complete silence which conveyed more hostility and fear that words ever could, they followed the trio across the clearing and out of a small opening that was virtually impossible to see unless you were standing on the right-paw, from the entrance, edge of the clearing. It opened into a low and dark fern tunnel, and Slick visibly relaxed, though they were getting closer and closer to the mysterious Governor...

Night and Slick's black pelts both faded into the shadows, but unlike Slick, who seemed to relish the darkness, Night appeared tense and worried. _I wonder what happened to make her afraid of the dark, but then, maybe she just doesn't like it, like me... or is she scared of the Governor?_

They soon came to a huge, looming rock. There was a hole in the side, almost invisible from where Ivy was. Out of the hole came darkness, deep, sucking, thick darkness, evil like Ivy, who was barely ten moons old, had never seen, or even dreamt of, before. It seemed to be drawing her in, luring her to it, as if eager to press her in on all sides, wanting to crush her until the life was gone. Was it just the darkness? Or was it the Governor inside, making black darker, deadlier, than any colour should be?

Even Slick seemed afraid of this darkness. It wasn't natural. The small tom was quivering, and she felt a brief stab of sympathy for him.

The powerful tom knocked his paw against the rock hard a few times. _What is he doing? _Ivy wondered. She nearly toppled over in shock when a voice, distorted by the layers of rock, answered what she now realised was a way of announcing yourself.

"Come in."

With a flick of his tail, inviting them to follow, the grey tom disappeared into the shadows. Night signalled for them to go first, surely to make sure that they wouldn't try to escape. Hesitantly, Slick put a paw out, and slid into the darkness, his pelt melting into them faster than Ivy had expected.

She didn't want to disappear like that. What if it was the last thing she ever did? But Night hissed at her and pushed her forwards. Forced to walk into the wide, hollow rock, Ivy felt the blackness swallow her like prey. She heard Night and the other tom getting in too, the sounds muffled by the thick darkness.

"Stone." Came a cold voice. It sounded like it had never known emotions; never known pain or sadness or the grief of loss. For a moment, Ivy stared into the darkest corners, envying the unfeeling owner of the voice. But the Governor had never known happiness, never felt the bond of friendship, never experienced love. Suddenly, the darkness lifted, like some kind of enchantment. Moss on the walls seemed to gleam silver in the most disturbing, ghostly way. "My lieutenant. State your purpose."

Stone, whom Ivy assumed to be the big burly grey one, bowed low. Ivy, who had been staring into the darkness, anywhere rather than the Governor, deemed it prudent to do the same. Still, she risked a glance into the unrelenting shadows where she knew the Governor sat. She nearly gasped in she had been prepared to see the outline of a tom even more massive and muscled than Stone, there was the slim silhouette of a she-cat.

Her smooth, unmarked silver coat shone sleekly in the half-light, putting even Slick's well-groomed fur to shame. Her tail was long, thick and fluffy. She didn't look young, or old. And her eyes... She had violet eyes that one could stare into forever. Dark blue and electric purple traced patterns around her pupils. The pupils themselves were hardly dilated by the darkness, as if she were so used to it that she had become part of it, but rather straight, sharp, thin, displaying calm that only a cat that knew that she was in complete power could show. The tip of her ear was shredded at the tip, but no other scar showed.

Even Ivy realised how beautiful she was. What a feat, to look beautiful even to your prisoners. How many hearts had she broken? It was a strange kind of beautiful too, ageless, slim, with eyes that were gorgeous, if only because of how unusual they were, the half-shredded ear showing fighting experience, a danger in her that was strangely appealing. To be totally objective, she was the most beautiful she-cat that Ivy had ever seen. _I wish I could look like her._ She surprised herself in her wish.

Then Stone spoke, his head still bowed. "Trespassers. I - we - caught them on our land."

The Governor's voice was as silky as her pelt, almost a cold purr. "It was only recently that it wasn't _our land._" Was it possible that they could get out of this? "But it's our land _now._"

Fear shot through Ivy like lightning bolts. She had never dreamed that the cat she would be most afraid of in her life would be the most beautiful she-cat she had encountered in her life. But as she opened her mouth to meow, showcasing perfect, pointy, deadly white teeth, Ivy hoped that she would never hear that cold, emotionless voice ever again.

"And since they were on _our land_," she was really purring this time, a purr devoid of amusement, full of nothing but the cruel, twisted pleasure that she got from keeping us waiting for her verdict. "Since they are on _our land..._ They can stay there." She was purring louder than ever, and Ivy fleetingly wondered why that was so frightening.

Night dared to raise her voice, but not her bowed head, and meow. "Stay? Surely you don't mean-"

"I do mean it." The Governor interrupted, purring more silkily than ever. "We are keeping them for the Testing."

**Let's stop now, shall we, just to annoy you! I figured that if I can't make the suspense from my cliffhangers as long as I'd like without purposefully delaying updates, I might as well make it worse! And do you know what the absolute _worst _thing is? _I know everything that's going to happen, and you don't. _Keep that in mind. I'm threatening you. I can stop this story if I don't get enough reads. I can simply disappear off the face of the earth and you will never find me again, if you don't review. So, keeping in mind that I know _everything _and can make a really unpopular ship happen, or have a favourite character killed (yes, you can cry for poor Jaysie), REVIEW_review_REVIEW!  
****Hope you like the turn of events... this is a sticky spot for Ivy... and for you! What is the Testing? Why is the stunning Governor keeping them? What exactly is Slick's history with the Blood?**

**Crystalshine: I was about to ask the Governor but you know how she is...**

**Stone: Yeah I do know. Get on to the important stuff.**

**Crystalshine: Say - um - please - say the disclaimer.**

**Stone: Okay, just mention to your readers that I'm the best.**

**Crystalshine: *grits teeth* *whispering* What an arrogant little *******. *not whispering* FINE. Stone is the best.**

**Stone: HA, you're finally admitting it!**

**Crystalshine: *glares***

**Stone: Okay, calm down... Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors, or Sparkpelt would have been called Sparkfire.**

**Crystalshine: OMG I didn't forget the disclaimer *dances around the room weirdly because she's a terrible dancer***

**Fun fact: I was about to call them the Blood Brothers but decided that they didn't act enough like family, so I**** broke it down to Blood.**

**Hope I didn't bore you with my insanely long A/N and see y'all around!**

**B**

**Y**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW, I can do what I threatened *smirks more evilly than the Governor could*)**


	19. Chapter 19

**Well hiii! Also I had a tendency to spoil a bit of the later series in my A/Ns (VoS and maybe some super editions and novellas, I haven't read BC) because I know that on fanfiction we have a majority of seasoned Warriors fans who eagerly wait the for the next book to come out, but I will try not to go too far past DotC to accommodate those who haven't read too far. **

**Mintflight0245 - Well, I said already: plot purposes. Ivy wouldn't have gone back to the forest if Jay hadn't died. Of course I could have found some other way... I briefly considered a fire in the City, but I decided that nah I wanted Jay dead, and anyway the fire would have killed Rose and Cesar, at least. I miss him too but I don't regret killing him, because I'm the sort of insensitive writer who kills kitties because I need to, and to spice up the story! So here's your answer! Thank you for reviewing! **

**Chappie time! (I'm so weird just ignore it) **

_Chapter 19 (you have no IDEA how much this means to me!)_

_Ivy could hear the uneven _breathing of the nervous cats in the cave. They were as scared of the Governor as she was.

"But they will have to Train first." A visible shiver went through the cats assembled around Ivy. A black pelt bristled - whether Slick or Night, she couldn't tell. "The black tom can Train less long than the usual Trainee, as I see he can probably already take care of himself. Though he needs to be educated in _our ways." _The way she said it made it sound like 'their way' was synonymous of 'slow and painful death'. "The she-cat will do the usual. I will decide on their Teachers later, for the time being, Twig can show the tom around, Night, take the she-cat. You are dismissed. Stone, stay. We have much to discuss." The cold, emotionless voice finally stopped, and Ivy could have sighed in relief.

Night turned around, whisking her tail to indicate to Ivy to follow her. Close by, Twig, the small tom, was doing the same with Slick.

Reluctant though she was to turn her back on two such lethal enemies who might just be talking about jumping on them and attacking them from behind, Ivy followed the black she-cat obediently. She emerged into blinding light, so bright that she closed her eyes for a moment. When she reopened them, they were only slits, just wide enough to see through. She never would have thought that the day would come when the sun would bother her; she had almost never been blinded, as her dark, midnight blue eyes had always worked just fine even in the brightest of days. The darkness had been so complete that, coming out, light felt harsh and unnatural. She pitied those whose eyes were already sensitive to light.

She didn't want to leave Slick, but Night and Twig both went in opposite directions, waving a polite goodbye with their tail. She padded after Night, barely registering the stares of the other cats, not so much hostile as curious now. She did her best to focus only on Night's jet-black pelt, everywhere else too bright to look at.

Night sat down in a shaded corner, giving Ivy's tired eyes some respite from the blinding light as she followed her, settling down about half a tail-length from her warily.

"So," the she-cat began. "What's your name?"

"I'm Ivy. You're Night, aren't you?" Ivy was sure about that, at least. Night looked shocked, and a little suspicious.

"How do you know that?" she demanded.

Ivy looked back at her with wide, innocent midnight blue eyes. "I heard your sister, Shadow, talking to you when we arrived." That was a shot in the dark. She had no proof to back up her guess that they were sisters, other than their similar pelts and how they looked the same age. But Night was once again surprised at how Ivy seemed to know that she had a sister, and what her name was.

But Ivy's soft blue gaze melted the suspicion around her heart visibly, and she looked down at her warmly. "Let's get you acquainted with the cats of the Blood."

"That's a strange name." Ivy dared to say. "Is that the name of your group?" Once again, she had guessed right, but instead of suspicious, Night seemed pleased that she had one less thing to explain.

"That's right. As a group, we hunt together, though we all eat what we catch. If we have some left over, we can give it to sick cats or nursing queens. This is less of a united group _than_ a bunch of random cats banded together for safety and the warmth of other pelts to sleep close to. But we find strong leadership her. We find friendship. The lucky ones find a mate." She paused. "It's mainly a good life... once you finish Training."

"What exactly are Training and Testing?" Ivy asked, curious. "It doesn't sound particularly great."

"That's probably because it isn't." The black-pelted she-cat answered ominously. "The Training is when you first join the group, or when you reach four moons old, depending on whether or not you joined before you were old enough to start Training. The Governor assigns you a Teacher among the cats of the Blood. The Teacher, well, teaches you. As a young Trainee, you will learn more hunting techniques, but in about half a moon, your Teacher will give you your first evaluation.

"The evaluation will be about hunting, and your Teacher will probably ask you something such as trying to turn a hunting crouch into an attack crouch. Most cats pass. If you don't, you'll get punished, and start all over again. If you pass, you will go on to do more battle training. Blood battle moves are very fierce. You must have noticed dog or cat claws and teeth on our collars and claws. With we cats of the Blood, it's a fight to the death of the opponent. Of course, we will run if it's necessary, but if we're winning, we kill. We are taught to do so without hesitation."

Seeing the flash of fear in Ivy's eyes as she shuffled slightly away, she backpedalled. "That doesn't mean we like it. But that's how it works here. Either way, Training is savage. Your Teacher will punish you, most of them will hit you with unsheathed claws, though in theory they will get in trouble if it leaves a permanent scar. A lot of them don't care, and the Governor doesn't really give a rat's whisker about it either.

"No Trainees get everything right for the first time, but many Teachers will punish you without thinking. If you're lucky, you get a nice one. It's a lot about luck here. If you get a good Teacher, you can rise in the ranks of the Blood, if you want to.

"Well, anyway. After Training, you have to pass a final assessment. You remember how I said that we were taught to fight until the opponent was dead? The final evaluation takes place in the Circus. It's a large bare space in the forest. It's used for the Test. All the Blood cats assemble around it to... to watch the Trainees fight. To the death."

Ivy gasped in horror. "We all have to fight each other?"

"Not all of you. You're paired up and you have to fight the cat you're with. If the Governor is unsure of your loyalty..." Night gulped hard. What had she seen in the Trainee Tests that were so horrible?

**Night's POV**

"If she's unsure of your loyalty, she'll make you fight somecat close to you." As she forced the words out, horrors buried deep seemed to resurface like appalling, hideous, undead zombies. She fought to force them down. Every time she saw Shadow, she was reminded. How could she ever forget? Blood was on the floor of the Circus, covering jet-black paws. She wished she could forget all the scarlet that gushed out.

**Well, doesn't everyone have a terrible secret? Too bad that you won't learn about Night's until next chapter. That's right, next chapter is not a normal chapter, nor even a dream sequence, though Crystal is still visiting. No, next chapter is the very first flashback chapter! Review, I'll get it out quicker!**

**B  
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**~Crystalshine of LightClan**


	20. Chapter 20

**It's almost sad that I can update so much faster than usual because of confinement: it means that the cliffhangers don't work that well anymore T-T**

**WyldClaw - glad to see you liked it!**

**I swear, every time I see that my little Ivy story got a review, I'm so happy that for a second, I think I might literally burst! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!**

**THANK YOU to Lightfeather123456 for the favourite and the follow *throws mini party and dances with computer* (everyone has such cool names OoO)**

**I REALLY NEED TO REMEMBER THE DISCLAIMER THIS TIME! But maybe, too caught up with the excitement that this chapter will, no doubt, bring, I'll forget, once again. Well I'm happy to write, you're happy to read, and we'd both be happy if you reviewed! Reviews are the connection between the reader and the writer; so REVIEW!**

**On with the chapter (I honestly have nearly no more of an idea about what will happen than you do lol)**

_Chapter 18_

_The strange cats walked Ivy _and Slick into a ridiculously stinky and crowded clearing. Dens were woven into a bramble wall. Hers was different: it was a converted juniper bush, with a widened rabbit hole at the end to provide an escape should anything ambush her, but which she hoped she'd never use. She _really _didn't like cramped spaces, and she _really _didn't like the dark.

Hostile glares gleamed at them from all sides, indicating clearly that those cats did not take kindly to strangers.

_I wonder what they'll do with us._

Suddenly, Ivy understood the scent of fear that came off Slick. Dog claws and cat teeth glimmered dully at their citypet collars, so that, instead of making them look like soft, pampered kitties, they had the air of seasoned combatants. _Dog claws... They killed dogs? And the cat teeth... Oh no._

If these cats decided that they didn't like her and Slick, they'd be torn apart. A few unsheathed claws gleamed, and she saw that some were reinforced with dog teeth and claws. One wrong word, one misplaced action, one loud breath, and they would die. Painfully. Like Jay.

But how had Slick, if the fear-scent that came of him was any indicator, guessed the danger they were in before seeing what they were up against? She'd have to take it up with him... if - if they were still alive.

"Night - who are they?" A black she-cat with gleaming amber eyes asked the other black she-cat who was escorting them. Ivy guessed they were sisters.

"Some trespassers we picked up, Shadow." Night responded. "We're taking them to see the Governor."

Shadow visibly shuddered. _Whoever this Governor cat is... they don't sound like some cat you'd like to meet. And we're being taken to them... This is looking bad. Let's hope Slick knows what to do._

Questions were being asked to Night and the other two toms, distracting them for a moment. She felt a light touch on her shoulder and nearly jumped, but it was just Slick.

"Let me do the talking," he whispered quickly, looking straight ahead to disguise the fact that he was talking to her, "and if they ask you questions, back up what I said."

Ivy could only nod mutely at Slick's words before their escort managed to shoulder their way through the cats that all seemed to want to know who they were, where they came from, what they wanted, why they were trespassing, how they had gotten into their territory, and a whole lot of other things that Ivy barely understood a word of.

"Shove off unless you want a scarred muzzle," growled the massive grey tom leading, "we have to take them to the Governor." He shot a nasty look over his huge shoulder at Ivy and Slick, as if he was hoping to see them executed before sundown.

At his words, the mob of curious and angry cats recoiled, some shivering like Shadow had. What could be so terrible about the Governor that even a simple mention of them made so many cats that afraid?

In a now entirely complete silence which conveyed more hostility and fear that words ever could, they followed the trio across the clearing and out of a small opening that was virtually impossible to see unless you were standing on the right-paw, from the entrance, edge of the clearing. It opened into a low and dark fern tunnel, and Slick visibly relaxed, though they were getting closer and closer to the mysterious Governor...

Night and Slick's black pelts both faded into the shadows, but unlike Slick, who seemed to relish the darkness, Night appeared tense and worried. _I wonder what happened to make her afraid of the dark, but then, maybe she just doesn't like it, like me... or is she scared of the Governor?_

They soon came to a huge, looming rock. There was a hole in the side, almost invisible from where Ivy was. Out of the hole came darkness, deep, sucking, thick darkness, evil like Ivy, who was barely ten moons old, had never seen, or even dreamt of, before. It seemed to be drawing her in, luring her to it, as if eager to press her in on all sides, wanting to crush her until the life was gone. Was it just the darkness? Or was it the Governor inside, making black darker, deadlier, than any colour should be?

Even Slick seemed afraid of this darkness. It wasn't natural. The small tom was quivering, and she felt a brief stab of sympathy for him.

The powerful tom knocked his paw against the rock hard a few times. _What is he doing? _Ivy wondered. She nearly toppled over in shock when a voice, distorted by the layers of rock, answered what she now realised was a way of announcing yourself.

"Come in."

With a flick of his tail, inviting them to follow, the grey tom disappeared into the shadows. Night signalled for them to go first, surely to make sure that they wouldn't try to escape. Hesitantly, Slick put a paw out, and slid into the darkness, his pelt melting into them faster than Ivy had expected.

She didn't want to disappear like that. What if it was the last thing she ever did? But Night hissed at her and pushed her forwards. Forced to walk into the wide, hollow rock, Ivy felt the blackness swallow her like prey. She heard Night and the other tom getting in too, the sounds muffled by the thick darkness.

"Stone." Came a cold voice. It sounded like it had never known emotions; never known pain or sadness or the grief of loss. For a moment, Ivy stared into the darkest corners, envying the unfeeling owner of the voice. But the Governor had never known happiness, never felt the bond of friendship, never experienced love. Suddenly, the darkness lifted, like some kind of enchantment. Moss on the walls seemed to gleam silver in the most disturbing, ghostly way. "My lieutenant. State your purpose."

Stone, whom Ivy assumed to be the big burly grey one, bowed low. Ivy, who had been staring into the darkness, anywhere rather than the Governor, deemed it prudent to do the same. Still, she risked a glance into the unrelenting shadows where she knew the Governor sat. She nearly gasped in she had been prepared to see the outline of a tom even more massive and muscled than Stone, there was the slim silhouette of a she-cat.

Her smooth, unmarked silver coat shone sleekly in the half-light, putting even Slick's well-groomed fur to shame. Her tail was long, thick and fluffy. She didn't look young, or old. And her eyes... She had violet eyes that one could stare into forever. Dark blue and electric purple traced patterns around her pupils. The pupils themselves were hardly dilated by the darkness, as if she were so used to it that she had become part of it, but rather straight, sharp, thin, displaying calm that only a cat that knew that she was in complete power could show. The tip of her ear was shredded at the tip, but no other scar showed.

Even Ivy realised how beautiful she was. What a feat, to look beautiful even to your prisoners. How many hearts had she broken? It was a strange kind of beautiful too, ageless, slim, with eyes that were gorgeous, if only because of how unusual they were, the half-shredded ear showing fighting experience, a danger in her that was strangely appealing. To be totally objective, she was the most beautiful she-cat that Ivy had ever seen. _I wish I could look like her._ She surprised herself in her wish.

Then Stone spoke, his head still bowed. "Trespassers. I - we - caught them on our land."

The Governor's voice was as silky as her pelt, almost a cold purr. "It was only recently that it wasn't _our land._" Was it possible that they could get out of this? "But it's our land _now._"

Fear shot through Ivy like lightning bolts. She had never dreamed that the cat she would be most afraid of in her life would be the most beautiful she-cat she had encountered in her life. But as she opened her mouth to meow, showcasing perfect, pointy, deadly white teeth, Ivy hoped that she would never hear that cold, emotionless voice ever again.

"And since they were on _our land_," she was really purring this time, a purr devoid of amusement, full of nothing but the cruel, twisted pleasure that she got from keeping us waiting for her verdict. "Since they are on _our land..._ They can stay there." She was purring louder than ever, and Ivy fleetingly wondered why that was so frightening.

Night dared to raise her voice, but not her bowed head, and meow. "Stay? Surely you don't mean-"

"I do mean it." The Governor interrupted, purring more silkily than ever. "We are keeping them for the Testing."

**Let's stop now, shall we, just to annoy you! I figured that if I can't make the suspense from my cliffhangers as long as I'd like without purposefully delaying updates, I might as well make it worse! And do you know what the absolute _worst _thing is? _I know everything that's going to happen, and you don't. _Keep that in mind. I'm threatening you. I can stop this story if I don't get enough reads. I can simply disappear off the face of the earth and you will never find me again, if you don't review. So, keeping in mind that I know _everything _and can make a really unpopular ship happen, or have a favourite character killed (yes, you can cry for poor Jaysie), REVIEW_review_REVIEW!  
****Hope you like the turn of events... this is a sticky spot for Ivy... and for you! What is the Testing? Why is the stunning Governor keeping them? What exactly is Slick's history with the Blood?**

**Crystalshine: I was about to ask the Governor but you know how she is...**

**Stone: Yeah I do know. Get on to the important stuff.**

**Crystalshine: Say - um - please - say the disclaimer.**

**Stone: Okay, just mention to your readers that I'm the best.**

**Crystalshine: *grits teeth* *whispering* What an arrogant little *******. *not whispering* FINE. Stone is the best.**

**Stone: HA, you're finally admitting it!**

**Crystalshine: *glares***

**Stone: Okay, calm down... Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors, or Sparkpelt would have been called Sparkfire.**

**Crystalshine: OMG I didn't forget the disclaimer *dances around the room weirdly because she's a terrible dancer***

**Fun fact: I was about to call them the Blood Brothers but decided that they didn't act enough like family, so I**** broke it down to Blood.**

**Hope I didn't bore you with my insanely long A/N and see y'all around!**

**B**

**Y**

**E**

**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW, I can do what I threatened *smirks more evilly than the Governor could*)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Well hey there, it's me again! *swears far more than 12 year olds should* I'm soooo so so sorry for not updating! Argh, who else feels like the teachers are putting in an extra effort to give us 5 times more homework than usual? I'm starting to really hate this confinement thing, not that I didn't hate it before... I doubt I'm alone in thinking this. But still, let's have a minute of silence for all the poor people who died. Feel free to curse unreasonably hard at coronavirus when one minute is over (Yes I swear far too much).**

**Thank you soo much for the favourite and follow Growlrangiku! As a suggestion, if you like my story, you can also review! But favs and follows make me really happy too! **

** This is just a filler chapter because not every chapter can be interesting. See y'all at the end! (If you like my scribbling, REVIEW! If you don't, also review, just say why you don't like it and what I could do to get better;))**

_Chapter 21_

_Ivy really hated this place. _Trainees fighting to the death? A heartless Governor who had no emotions except from the enjoyment that she got from torturing other cast? For the very first time, Ivy wished she had never set paw into the forest. Was freedom really worth all this trouble? Was _this_ really freedom?

Night stood up. "Let's go, I want to introduce you to the other Trainees."

Maybe being around cats her own age would lift her spirits... but wasn't it hard, to know that any of them could be the one you would have to kill? Surely it would make cats more reluctant to make friends, to have strong links or attachments, until they were full Blood members? But it had been so long, moons, since she had even glimpsed somecat her age... The last one was Rose, unless you counted the memories of Jay that could barely fill half the space he had. The sun shining on her pelt had been enough at the time, but she wanted to talk with a trusted friend again, who would understand her view of the world from her slightly lower position.

Ivy nodded decisively. It may seem like nothing, but this would tie her to the Blood very hard. Any friendship found, even here, would be hard to give up.

She stood up, shook her cream-and-tabby pelt out where it was flattened from sitting, and followed Night out of the corner into the camp.

It was bustling, full of eyes that all seemed to turn to stare at her. She tried to her dark blue gaze from theirs; even though she wasn't shy at all, she was conscious that these cats had all killed at some point, and would probably not hesitate to do so again. She shuddered at the thought. She hoped she'd never have to kill anycat, but the chances of not doing that were feeble now. She felt slightly nauseous, thinking about cream-coloured paws saturated crimson... or worse, a cream-and tabby body, lying in a clearing in the middle of a cheering circle of cats.

She didn't want to think about that, and hastened her pace to keep up with Night's longer legs. She was being led to a very large bush on the far side of camp. It was hung with thorns and weaved with leaves, and was exposed to the coldest winds. She could see the sky turning purple over her head. She had missed the sunset, and twilight had arrived. She had always had some kind of stupid, kit-like grudge against twilight because it signified the end of the day, the sun going down, the darkness taking over... Dawn was her favourite time of day, followed closely by sunpeak.

As they drew nearer, she heard yowls coming from the bush, and wondered what was happening, and who was in there. Then she realised. She could have smacked her paw onto her forehead in the most spectacular facepaw ever had she not been walking. The Trainees were in there! It was surely where they slept.

Night nosed her way under the bush, followed by Ivy. It looked even bigger from the inside! Two Trainees were wrestling in the middle, and at least six other young cats were cheering for them. The cats in the centre were a bulky dark brown tom and a fiery ginger she-cat. She couldn't really make out details of their pelts, they were moving far too fast.

"Are they hurting each other?" Ivy gasped to Night.

The older she-cat laid her tail reassuringly on her shoulder. "They aren't." She explained. "They're fighting with claws sheathed. It's a good exercise, but they are forbidden to really hurt each other." Ivy tried not to think about what the punishment would be.

Night raised her voice. "Trainees! Come over here!" The Trainees reluctantly broke away from the circle around the fight to gather in front of the black she-cat, some with mutinous looks on their faces, as though they resented Night ending their fun. She could see the cats who had been fighting more clearly now: the brown tom had a dash of white on his forehead and chest and his eyes were yellow, while the bright orange she-cat's muzzle, paws and tail-tip faded into black, with dark amber eyes. She looked like the sassy and confident type, and tough, especially if she was willing to fight a tom bigger than her.

Both were slightly bruised and the tom's ear was flipped outwards. As she watched, he flicked it and it went back to the way it presumably was before the fight.

"We've got a new Trainee. Her name is Ivy." The young she-cat was burning slightly with the weight of all the attention, and she wished they would look at Night instead.

_She's the one talking, why are they staring at _me? Of course, she knew, but she didn't like being the centre of attention in the middle of a group of cats she didn't know. For all she knew, they would hate her on sight and give her a hard time. What if they thought she was ugly, or stupid, or... Whatever else it is that half-grown cats judge strangers of their age on?

She had felt the same when she was first introduced to the Band, but had relaxed soon enough when she had realised they were friendly and fun. She just hoped that these cats were the same.

**Right so introductions next chapter, I'll probably put some allegiances at the start, so the chapter might be a bit short. I was thinking of starting a Harry Potter fanfic because I have an idea I can't resist. Tell me if you think I should, because update time might be stretched. Also tell me if I should change the rating of this story to T. That means REVIEW. Did you know that if everyone reviewed every chapter, I would have thousands of reviews for this?**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (digital cookies for reviewers! (::))**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hi! Missed me haven't you? I've decided I'll do the Harry Potter fanfic, but I'll focus on this one because I just**

**oldphilosopher - Thank you so much! I try! I like to think that you're enjoying the A/Ns as well as the story. And I like how random your name is... Was it your idea or someone else's? *HUGE very conspicuous wink***

**Thank you so much for the favourite and follow, FaeGhostReader!**

**I've also got a special message for coronavirus: If you are reading this, will you please leave me, my wonderful readers, and our families, alone? And move to another planet? Maybe Pluto? Just a suggestion, cause you might not have noticed but you're taking up more space than necessary on our planet, so I kindly invite you to leave. (Lol if only that could make it go away)**

**And now it's time for me to distract you from all the problems in the world, because that's a writer's job! ****Here's the new chapter (slightly longer than usual)!**

_Chapter 22 (Can you even believe it?!)_

_Ivy just stood there, hoping _not to combust at the embarrassment of everycat's gaze on her. The ginger she-cat was staring especially hard with her unsettling dark amber eyes. The others were looking too. Night had gone right after she had finished introducing her, as though she hated the Trainees' den for some reason.

So now she was alone with eight complete strangers who were staring at her like she had unexpectedly grown a second and very ugly head. Everycat knows those moments when you'd rather be anywhere than exactly where you're standing. Well this was one of those moments. Ivy was basically paralysed. She tried to analyse her options but everything she could do might be taken the wrong way or put even more attention on her. She was saved from having to decide by a light grey tabby she-cat with green eyes gleaming with friendliness.

She came up to Ivy, meowing.

"Hi, Ivy!" she said. "I'm sorry if the others are acting all weird, but we don't often get new faces around here. I'm Cloud."

Cloud's words seemed to unblock something in the other Trainees, and they all came forwards to welcome her. Soon she was drowning in questions.

She noticed that the bright ginger she-cat was sitting slightly apart from the group, looking at them, but not speaking, or moving closer. Ivy could feel dark amber eyes boring into her pelt, and it was making her slightly nervous. She felt like these eyes could burn through anything and reveal what is cowering behind. It wasn't an altogether pleasant feeling at all. Ivy liked to keep her walls up around strangers, and didn't really appreciate the thought of cats she had just met seeing right through it.

_Besides, I'm probably just imagining things. I'll just ask Cloud about her, and see whether she's like that all the time._

And Ivy threw herself back into the conversation with the Trainees, answering all their questions. A few of them looked disdainful at her admission of having been a citypet, two identical black-and-white toms with their faces split down the middle; one half black and the other white, green eyes displaying the exact same amount of scorn, named Frost and Raven. Ivy guessed they were littermates. She defended herself as best as she could.

"I'm never going back there!" she exclaimed, when a golden spotted tabby she-cat, Buttercup, implied that maybe life in the Blood would be too hard for her. "And I've living on my own long enough. I can take care of myself."

Buttercup muttered. "It's not like you _can _leave anyway."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the fiery she-cat narrowing her amber optics, as if she had seen or heard something interesting, which could be of help later. Despite her fire-coloured pelt, she looked cold and calculating, and Ivy shivered slightly. The she-cat's eyes were fixed on her, ignoring the crowd around her. Dark amber eyes seemed to pin her in place, making Ivy feel trapped. She needed to get out. She needed air. But she couldn't leave now: her fellow Trainees would think it was weird for her to just run off for apparently no reason.

* * *

"So what's the deal with that orange she-cat over there?"

Cloud laughed. "I see you've noticed Flame. She's like that with everycat." She paused for a heartbeat. "You'll see, she's a very accurate judge of character. She probably knows more about you from watching you a few minutes than you do from your whole life! That's why she likes to watch, and keep quiet. It means she gets learn about other cats. She usually avoids direct conversation."

As if wondering whether to continue, the light grey she-cat stopped. When she started again, it was in a low voice. "It can make her dangerous. She's so closed off, no one knows anything about her, but she guesses anything about anycat... She can guess your weaknesses and strengths in a second. It's almost creepy. I wouldn't get in her way."

Ivy shivered again. "Thanks for the advice."

"Wait, that's not everything." Cloud continued. "In battle training, she's deadly. She's logical, analytical, calculating. She judges your position, knows if you're planning to bluff, double-bluff, triple-bluff even. She never misses a detail."

How was Ivy going to sleep at night in the same den as a cat who could slit all their throats in the darkness? "Great," she lied enthusiastically, "is there anycat here who isn't really creepy and a potential serial killer?"

Cloud laughed again, a crystalline _mrow_ that sounded like bright meadows and sunshine. "Oh, Ivy." she touched her tail-tip to Ivy's shoulder. "_Everycat_ here is deadly."

Ivy fought the urge to back away from her and make a bolt for it. She had to be imagining the savage light that had ignited in Cloud's pale green eyes, the menacing glint of sharp white teeth, the glimmer of unsheathed claws... This camp was looking less like a place where cats lived and more like a deathtrap every second.

_Why does trouble always seem to find _me?

_Quit whining. The Blood can make you stronger, more skilled. _It was Crystal. Her voice wasn't really that sharp, or as hard as it could be. Ivy was becoming more and more certain that her friend was just a figment of her imagination, but she was mostly fine with that. Being a bit weird, or having an imaginary friend, had never hurt anycat. Hearing her voice in her head was starting to get ridiculous though. But, on instinct, she replied mentally.

_Yes, Crystal._

* * *

Night had come, both of them. The cat was curled up next to Ivy, and the darkness had settled over camp like a stifling pelt. Ivy didn't know whether Night was really allowed to be in the Trainees' den, but she let it slide. Her presence was reassuring.

She had kept whipping her head around for no reason at all following the strange incident with Cloud. She knew she was acting really paranoid, and that her mind was probably playing tricks on her, but she couldn't get the image of the transformed Cloud out of her head.

It was horrible. She never wanted to see that again. That was her last thought as she fell into sleep, into the Land of Stars.

_"Crystal!" Ivy purred and bowled her friend over easily thanks to her slightly bigger frame._

_Crystal pushed her off with her hind legs, and Ivy landed on her paws, whirling around to face her friend, too slowly. She was pushed over by Crystal mid-turn, where her balance was most unstable, and ended up on the floor._

_"You know what you could have done there?" Ivy shook her head no at Crystal's question. "You could have landed on your hind paws only, it would have allowed you to spin around faster, so that your opponent was still on the ground or dazed when you leapt again, or that you'd be ready when they attacked."_

_Ivy's midnight blue eyes opened wide. This was a real challenge. Of course, she was up for it, but what worried her was whether or not she would succeed. This was going to be a long training session indeed._

* * *

_(Later, after the end of the session)_

_**Crystal's POV**_

_This had taken less time than she had thought, but no matter. She would just have to move her plans along faster. She hadn't thought that she would need to make training harder before at least a moon, but this actually just sped up her plans. It only unbalanced them slightly, and Crystal was an expert at getting back to her paws easily. There was a light to every situation, and the advantage in this one was_ crystal _clear. The white she-cat, her pelt nearly swallowed up by the shadow of the 'Land of Stars', chuckled at her own play on words. Everything was going so perfectly that she smiled the most genuine, if not entirely reassuring, smile that she had in a while._

_If Ivy was going to receive more fierce training from the Blood - and Crystal would see to it that the training_ was _fierce - then the icy-eyed she-cat would have to up her game too. That meant training Ivy harder, for longer, each night without fail. Claws unsheathed, now that no cat would notice what with the scratches on her pelt from the day training._

_The one thing that worried her was this cat. She sensed that this one could seriously upset her plans. She would have to keep a close eye on that particular cat, or the whole thing could go to ashes. _

_Crystal could see the fire that burned inside that cat, despite all the ice around it that was all the other cats could see. _

_Her ice-blue eyes narrowed. This fierce a flame couldn't be put out -_

_and it was dangerous._

**Well, looks like another cliffhanger for y'all. Review me your guesses on who Crystal was thinking about - I think I made it pretty obvious. **

**So, Ivy thinks it's all in her head, but we all know otherwise. Crystal's 'plans' are unclear, but we do know that her final goal is to 'take revenge' on the Clans. So where does Ivy come in? Also Allegiances time, only the Trainees for now. **

Ivy - brown tabby-and-cream she-cat with blue eyes like the midnight sky

Boulder - stocky dark brown tom with a white dash on his chest and forehead, yellow eyes

Cloud - light grey tabby she-cat with pale green eyes

Flame - bright ginger she-cat, muzzle, paws, and tail-tip fade into black, dark amber eyes that see right through you

Frost and Raven - identical littermates: black-and-white pelts, faces split down the middle with half of it white, the other half black and dissimilar eyes. Light green eye on the black side, dark green on the white side. Subtle pelt differences, Crow has slightly bigger ears.

Buttercup - golden spotted tabby she-cat with blue eyes

Leaf - light brown tabby she-cat, her tabby markings look like fern fronds, round gold eyes

Sky - blue-grey tom with light blue eyes

**That is IT for today, see you soon! Oh I almost forgot, disclaimer time!**

**Disclaimer:**

**Crystalshine: Raven, say the disclaimer**

**Frost: Crystalshine doesn't-**

**Crystalshine: Frost, I know it's you, quit playing around, and Raven, say the disclaimer**

**Frost: Okay. Crystalshine owns nothing but the plot and her characters, this whole thing was originally the Erins' idea**

**Crystalshine: Purrfect - wait WHAT? You guys fooled me _again? _Raven, say the [censored] disclaimer unless you want me to resort to the sort of threats that no cat wants to hear**

**Raven: *squeaky voice* Oki, Cwystawssine**

**Crystalshine: I know you got a kit to say that now - what? Now I'm just really confused. You know what I'm just going to say it my-[censored]self. I own nothing but plot and characters, Ice and Raven are absolute [censored], the world and original idea belongs to the Erins, or Sparkpelt would've been named Sparkfire like Greystripe suggested because it's so much cooler and because I wish Firestar were still alive - don't get me wrong, I love Bramblestar, but he's still Bramblec_law _to me in a way, the young warrior who went on the TNP quest.**

**Gotta stop rambling now cause this chapter is getting real long, so see ya!**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (I say that too much but REVIEW)**


	23. Chapter 23

**Well here I am, back again! I got this super nice review so I'm gonna reply to it, and then chapter time!**

**DawnFrostofThunderClan74 - Thank you sooo so much [insert hearts here] this is the best review everrr! I'm so glad you like it that much! And thank you for the fav!**

**So when I stop my mini party I'll start writing. OK done, mostly because no one showed up thanks to... Guess who it is... *drum roll* CORONA and you guessed it, the one and only coronavirus is right here for your service.**

**I'm doing another fun fact: I'm planning to kill Ivy off early! Don't hate me, but she might die real soon, I already have this idea...**

**Haha you believed me. Of course I won't kill Ivy, I've come too far, but not far enough, to drop her now!**

**So we stopped when Crystal was going on and on about a fire cat who was cold and that didn't make any sense. Haha, who guessed who it was? I'm pretty sure I made it fairly obvious.**

_Chapter 23 (no I can't believe it either!)_

_Ivy's eyes blinked open, reflecting _the light that filtered through the branches of the Trainees' bramble den. She had shifted away from Night in her sleep, and now she was on the outside of the den. A draft was ruffling her fur, that was probably what had awakened her. She sighed and rolled over out of the cold air, trying to get back to sleep. She had spent most of the night training with Crystal in her dreams, and, though she _had _definitely been asleep, she didn't feel rested at all. Her muscles were aching, and she attempted to find a sleeping position which wouldn't hurt.

But she was woken again by somecat barging in and shaking her hard. Ivy blinked one eye open, a slit, as they were still too sensitive to hold the light yet.

"Wut..." she said very eloquently.

"Wake up Ivy!" She jerked completely awake at the voice. _Oh Ivy, _everycat_ here is deadly... _

She shuddered inwardly. It was Cloud's voice. She would forever associate it with that short, clear, extremely disturbing, sentence. "What do you want?" Ivy questioned, pelt standing on end.

"Whoa, calm down Ivy." Cloud sat down, fur flat, ears pricked, legs relaxed. She wasn't afraid of Ivy. "I just wanted to tell you, rumours spread through camp like wildfire, everycat knows about you now, but it's mainly weird, untrue stuff. They're saying you still have your citypet collar and you smell of Twolegs!" She giggled.

Ivy's tailtip flicked, and her ears laid against her head. Her fur bristled again as Cloud continued.

"They think you're a soft citypet!" She was outright laughing now; Ivy wouldn't have been surprised to see her rolling on the floor.

The other Trainees were gone, she guessed they were off training. She hoped for their sake that Frost and Raven hadn't been the ones to start the rumours, or she would destroy them, just to prove what a cute fluffy tame kitty she was.

Cloud had stopped laughing. "Seriously though, what they're also saying is that your Teacher will be appointed today! That other black cat you came with is going to get a teacher too, but I think he'll do less Training, and skip the Testing - after all, whatever cats say, size _can _be an advantage and he's bigger than us. Maybe we can train together, if you reach my level!"

Ivy was disliking this cat more and more every heartbeat; she didn't know if she was overanalysing everything that Cloud was saying because she was a paranoid madcat, or if her words the day before had just shaken her a bit harder than they should have - but then, maybe Cloud didn't even realise that she had sounded so... weird, or that she was actually saying words that could be hurtful, though that seemed doubtful.

Ivy didn't really like the implication that she was still a citypet, illustrated by the idea of the collar, or that she belonged to Twolegs and that their stench still clung to her like the cobwebs of old memories (**believe it or not I'm really proud of that (: )**.

Also, that cleverly disguised comment... The _"if _you get to my level". Cloud was so sure of her superiority. Some cats think they're so tall, but that only makes them easier to strike and topple over. Know your strength. If you think you're weaker than you are, you won't dare to put up a fight, but if you think you are too strong, you will one day get into a fight you will lose.

"So anyway, the Governor will call an Assembly soon, to declare your Teacher." The light grey tabby said. "You might want to get cleaned up before that. Image counts for a lot, you know." Then she stalked out of the den, leaving Ivy alone with her thoughts. Not very pleasant thoughts they were.

_Maybe I was wrong to suspect Frost and Raven for the gossip. _

She was licking herself clean, starting with face, then back, belly, flank, tail, and paws last. By that time, her tongue was aching, but her pelt was fluffy yet shiny,her paws were white as snow, and she felt ready. She just hoped it was enough.

* * *

"Everycat of the Blood, come forth to Assemble before your Governor. I have something of importance to do." The cold emotionless voice was worse than Cloud's, infinitely worse. It chilled Ivy until she felt like a statue of ice, a shard that would shatter if it was dropped - and right now, it wasn't in very reliable paws.

She had thoroughly washed, attempted to mentally prepare herself, imagined what it would be like - but nothing like this. The whole Blood was in a wide circle around the Governor, though Ivy suspected it was less because of respect and more because of fear. Violet eyes swept across the crowd, finding Ivy and Slick.

"Ivy, Slick come forwards." Still no emotion whatsoever. Didn't she care? Ivy followed Slick into the circle, staying as far away from the Governor as they could. "Slick, you are old enough to be a full Blood member, however, you must train in our ways. I have assigned you Tiger and Ash. They will never leave you, or let you leave. This is where you are now - and where you will stay. Up to them to figure out a Training schedule."

A brownish orange tabby she-cat and a solid grey tom stepped out from the ranks, looking honoured. They came up on either side of Slick and steered him back to the crowd. Ivy was alone in the middle now.

"Scar. You will be Ivy's Teacher. You will Train her like you would any Trainee. All of your Trainees have passed the Testing, hope that this one does too."

The first thing that came to mind about Scar was that he wasn't scarred. He had a small nick in his ear, and if Ivy looked really closely she could see a place or two where the fur was parted by an old badly-healed scratch, but otherwise, nothing. Plenty of cats in the Blood looked a lot more scarred than this. _Does that mean that he's an amazing fighter?_

It probably did, but Ivy didn't know whether to be glad or afraid.

**Aaaaaaaaand... CUT! Yep I'm leaving you hanging. Cliffhangers are just the best, don't you think? And aaaall my chapters are specifically measured out for all of them to end in a cliffie that will torture you for a week or so until I update! Good luck surviving - ah. I was about to forget again.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Crystalshine: Scar, say the disclaimer.**

**Scar: the disclaimer**

**Crystalshine: you know what I mean. Now do it.**

**Scar: Explain why I should do it.**

**Crystalshine: well you're the new important character, soooo...**

**Scar: I see. Actually, this is sooo clear that i think this is the clearest thing I've ever seen. Of course, _I _must be disturbed from what I was doing to say this disclaimer. I see. It makes so much sense... That it doesn't make sense at all. EXPLAIN.**

**Crystalshine: what _were _you doing before I called you?**

**Scar: do I ask about what's your business? OK, I do, but you're only allowed to do it to idiots.**

**Crystalshine: You're INSUFFERABLE, why did I even create you!**

**Scar: I'm not Insufferable, I'm Scar.**

**Crystalshine: Ugh.**

**Scar: you're pronouncing it wrong.**

**Crystalshine: why do you have to be so sarcastic all the time?**

**Scar: *sarcastically* I have _absolutely no idea_. Maybe because I am surrounded by idiots. (see what I did there? The Lion King (Disney) anyone? ;))))))**

**Crystalshine: *huge sigh* *wondering how Ivy will survive with such an annoying Teacher* I'll have to say it myself. I own just the plot and my characters, everything else belongs to the fabulous Erins, otherwise Tawnypelt would have become leader of ShadowClan!**

**Well, this is the longest A/N ever so bai. **

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan**


	24. Chapter 24

**Hi everyone! Remember when I said I drew better than I wrote? I am on deviantart now! I'm called CrystalOfLightClan, and I have draw Squirrelflight, when she was Squirrelpaw on the Midnight quest! Go check it out please! **

**Ivystorm - Are you the same person as Ivystormrandomness? If so I LOVE YOU and all your randomness! And Scar... doesn't have that many scars. That's how much sense it makes.**

**We're starting to reach the part that will become _very _interesting, you see, this whole thing was leading up to what will happen in a few chapters... The real story starts then... **

**So chapter now!**

_Chapter 23_

_Panicking was a bad idea. _So was being trained to kill by a cat who had probably done so multiple times. So was staying in the Blood. Accepting Scar as her Teacher was like creating a tie with the Blood, a tie that she did not want. But it wasn't like she had a choice. She let Scar escort her back to the ring of cats, barely hearing the Governor order the cats to disperse again.

Scar brought her to a corner of the camp. He sat down, motioning with his tail for Ivy to copy him.

"Tell me about yourself." He demanded.

Ivy just stared in disbelief. "Why do you want to know?" she asked, sounding rude.

"I don't know, maybe because we're going to be spending every day Training together for moons?" Sarcasm cut through the air, and the realisation that this was true hit Ivy full in the face. "They say you have had an - ah - ... shall we say, _interesting _past."

Fury boiled in Ivy's veins, surging like fire through her body. But she tried to hide it. "Well, I don't know what the rumours say," she lied rather smoothly. Cloud had informed her of exactly what they said. "If you told me I could confirm or deny them." she purred, silky smooth, as if nothing really concerned her.

Scar's dark grey left ear twitched slightly. He looked her right in the eye. "They're saying that you were a citypet."

She couldn't get angry, that would only get her into trouble. She tried to make her pelt lie flat, but failed: it was still sticking up in aggressive spikes.

Her Teacher was smiling slightly. "So the gossip is true, for once."

Ivy was going to choke on her rage. He thought she didn't know the rumours but she did. He was implying that she was a soft kitty with trimmed claws, a jingly bell at the end of her collar, and a stench of Twolegs.

She unsheathed her claws, just so he could see how sharp they were, how much damage they would do if she slashed them across his fur... _Stop. Don't get into trouble on your first day._

Swallowing her outrage with difficulty, she sat stiff as a pole, forcing her pelt to lay flat and her ears not to press back against her head. It took all the self-control and common sense she had not to launch herself at him to tear his eyes out.

He was dangerous, much more so than her. If a fight started, he would take her out with his front paws tied behind his back. All her focus was on keeping her paws stuck to the ground, stopping herself from dropping into an attack crouch.

Scar just looked a little amused; she wasn't fooling him. He knew she was about to burst with fury, he knew it was his fault, and he enjoyed it. He also knew that the little smile would make her even madder because she would guess all these things. She wanted to yowl her frustration out. How was it that he had manipulated her so well? How did he do that?

A voice in her head told her that he had probably learnt it lurking in the darkness where he belonged, that she should leave it alone. However, another one was there too.

_Observe him. You'll learn to do it too. Imagine all the power it brings, to be able to get anycat exactly where you want them, without them realising until it's too late..._

It was certainly more persuasive than the first. Ivy licked her lips at the prospect of that, then felt like like clawing herself in the face. Where had the honest, sunny part of her that she thought she had brought with her from her citypet days? It had seemingly disappeared, or was buried deep. She determined to dig it out, no matter the cost.

Making her voice as normal as possible, she said, as dignified as she could:

"They seem to be." He smirked a bit, but she pretended not to notice. "What are we doing today?" She decided to act like any normal Trainee, an eager look carefully placed on her face - but she soon realised there was no need to act this part, she truly did want to learn new moves. She would just need to forget that she would have to use those very techniques against a cat that she would need to kill. No big deal.

"I'm sure it isn't all. You don't look fresh out of the City." Was that a compliment? Or was he saying that, despite all her efforts, she looked like a shaggy wildcat? She decided to think positive.

"No," she replied, "I've been taking care of myself for moons now."

Scar settled down comfortably. "I think you might have a story to tell." His eyes gleamed. "I haven't heard a good story in awhile, let's see if yours match my standards."

How did he know that a challenge was all she needed to do anything? She had chosen to play the easy-going kitty game, and she would stick to it. After all, change your technique in the middle of a game of secrets and lies, and victory will elude you.

Ivy decided to tell him. She talked about her sister's death. About the comfort she had found in the Band. How she had one day found herself inexplicably attracted to the mysterious emerald forest, and had gotten lost in it that very sunround. When she had met Slick who had denied knowing, and the fox attack soon after, that he had fought off, and he had told her how to heal him with goldenrod and cobweb.

She told him how Slick had taught her to hunt, and how the next day he had had an infection-induced fever because of a mistake she had made in the poultice, and was thrashing around muttering nonsensical half-sentences. She described the wound, how horrible the infection was. How she had gone to look for more goldenrod to replace the dressing, and found Jay along with it. How they had healed Slick, how Jay had revealed that he knew the way back home to the City.

She explained her dilemma, and her decision to go home, how crushed Jay and Slick were. She told him about Jay's tragic death at the savage claws of the dog that she had contributed to setting free. She talked about her decision to leave her old home in the City and to become a wild cat. She finished by explaining about the last few uneventful, lonely moons and how she had stumbled across Slick, being found by the Blood patrol only heartbeats after.

Scar looked thoughtful. "That was better than I expected." He paused for a while, so long that Ivy wondered if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. Then he went on. "Did you know that the Blood used to be established in the City?"

Ivy widened her eyes and shook her head no. _If I'd gone exploring on my own I might have been ripped to shreds by these thugs!_

"It was... Okay. For those of us who could take care of themselves properly. The hunting was rather poor, scavenging led to sickness, so did hunting rats." He explained. "The Governor - The Governor at the time that is - was very set in his ways. He wanted to stay. Our present Governor decided to overthrow him with a few cats she had found in the Blood that were willing to leave to the forest.

"So the succession in the Blood is rather simple. The Governor is top cat. They appoint a Commander, who is supposed to advise them, but will mostly back up what they say and do their dirty work." Ivy nodded to say she understood. "Well the Governor killed both the previous Governor and his Commander, and took power for herself, by herself. She rules mainly with fear, no one dares to speak against her, no one dares to do anything that would displease her. Her Commander now is Stone."

"Isn't his name ironic." Ivy murmured. She saw Scars ears swivelling towards her. _Oh no! He heard me!_

To her utter shock, he threw his head back and roared with laughter. "I think you might yet grow on me!" Ivy's eyes were still round with surprise. "Stone - stone-hearted - as stupid as a stone -" He couldn't even finish his sentence, he was laughing so hard. Ivy thought he might have liked the sarcasm, seeing as he was so sarcastic all the time.

After his laughing fit was over, he lowered his voice confidentially. "This isn't the sort of thing that you can go an tell anyone." His yellow eyes darted around, making sure no one was listening in to their conversation. "A lot of cats here would run to tell Stone the heartbeat they heard. You've got to understand, here, it's not easy. It might be a group but it's mainly everycat out for themselves. If it means they'll get extra points with Stone - which could mean that they could be the next Commander - they'd do, well, mostly anything."

Ivy nodded calmly, but inside, she was screaming.

_Talking can get you killed? You might die or be permanently scarred at the end of your training? Cats just overthrow each other? A rule based on fear? _

Wasn't that just great.

**Hey did anyone notice that in the Night flashback chapter, it was said that Slick was in her Trainee group? Also I hope you liked this chapter!**

**Disclaimer:**

**Crystalshine: Hi, um, Flame? Will you say the disclaimer?**

**Flame: Why should I?**

**Crystalshine: Because.**

**Flame: Because of what exactly?**

**Crystalshine: *is combusting in fury* Because of - you know what, how did you know exactly how to make me mad?**

**Flame: You should know. You're _supposed _to know. You created me. Maybe you're just stupid. **

**Crystalshine: *dies***

**Flame: Crystalshine owns her OCs and the plot. The Warriors universe belongs to the Erins, if it did belong to her Hollyleaf wouldn't have died.**

**Crystalshine: *de-dies* I'm going to kill you you little -**

**~This is a message from the Maintenance: We will cut this here due to abusive and highly offensive content.~**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW!) (IMMA KILL FLAME) (REVIEW!)**


	25. Chapter 25

**Well hello I am writing this while I should be doing an assignment for French class about Scapin the Schemer (in french) that is already late (remember I go to a French school, I do lots of English though and I love it (((: ), but I saw I had a review and couldn't resist. It's always like that.**

**Mintflight0245 - I'm always glad to see that people like the disclaimer and the chapter, I work hard to keep both interesting! What have I done to have to deal with 2 really annoying characters in a row? *ignores the fact that she chose them herself*  
How right were my guesses? And I'm sorry if it was pinging in class, it's just that when I find a fanfic I really like, I get _slightly _overexcited... You know I'm a bit insane already!**** I hope you didn't get into trouble though. I'll remember about the time difference stuff next time!**

**ivystorm - You raise a valid point about the "screaming inside" part. But for me it's more like "calm on the outside, wanting to rip someone's eyes out on the inside". I am a psychopath.**

**Thanks to every reviewer, I now have 30 reviews! More than I ever expected to be honest.**

**Chappie time! (You're used to it by now, ignore the weirdness... I said ignore it!) This chapter, stuff is going to become very _very _interesting. The plot will finally move a bit! We've been on this too long, gotta keep it new! If the novelty wears off, it's not fun anymore because characters find their balance, however I want them to fall off the tightrope. Would that make me a bad person? No, just a great writer ;) jk**

**Keep the reviews coming, you know I love them! One thing to specify: IVY HAS FORGOTTEN about the prophecy given to her by Jolie. However this prophecy defines the whole story (I literally reference myself to the prophecy to make sure I don't have inconsistencies) **

**After the insanely long A/N...**

_ Chapter 25 (every time I write this number here I wonder how a little idea from 11 year-old me turned into this O.o)_

_"Are you okay?" Scar sounded _worried. Ivy shook her head hard to try and get rid of the negative thoughts. Once again, it would not help to panic, it wasn't like she could escape when she was living in a camp full of Blood cats and living in a den crowded with Trainees.

Either way, she would have to work hard; life in the forest was tough, but she intended to be tougher. Training would be tough too, and she'd have to be the best Trainee... Otherwise... She shook her head harder.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She probably wasn't very convincing, but after a little bit of looking suspicious, Scar relaxed.

"So," he began. "what do you want to start with?" He was asking her opinion? She guessed she was lucky. She wanted to impress him, and decided to choose...

"Battle training!" She squeaked out, excited as a kit.

He looked down at her. "Are you sure? You're kind of inexperienced for battle training." He was underestimating her now? _Ugh._

"If you think it'll be too hard for me to beat you," Ivy meowed, not ready to let go of precious battle training, "put me up against another Trainee. You'll get a better idea of my level."

"Ivy... I don't think you understand." _Understand _what? _I understand perfectly! _"Training is claws out."

"So what?"

The long-furred grey tom stared at her. He hadn't noticed the little scars that crisscrossed her pelt in places, where her fur was carefully arranged to look as sleek as usual. Crystal was very fierce when she wanted to be, despite her smaller size.

He still seemed indecisive. _Time to use the secret weapon._

She looked up at him, blinking big, sparkling, midnight blue kitty eyes. If that didn't work nothing would.

As expected, Scar caved in no time. That wasn't really a surprise, that gaze could probably melt a rock.

"If that's what you want. I think Leaf and her Teacher Holly are battle training today too, in the Poolside clearing." Scar said. "We'll go join them. But be careful," he warned, "Leaf is more advanced than you, she's bigger and stronger."

Ivy was confident she could take her on; though she had only fought with a smaller cat, Crystal, she had been trained to go fast to match her speed, not to take advantage of her extra weight. They'd underestimated her, well, she'd show them that they'd been wrong.

Ivy also doubted that Scar could accurately guess her fighting skill.

He turned around, motioning with his tail for her to follow.

Mildly curious glances followed them across the camp, but the new gossip subject was getting old already. Ivy suspected they would find something else to talk about soon enough. They went out of the entrance, but headed the opposite way to the one by which she and Slick had come.

She had never been to this part of the forest. It was almost exactly the same, but the trees were thinner, and the undergrowth more sparse.

**If anyone doesn't understand, she was near the ThunderClan border, and the Blood camp is a bit further up if you think of the map at the start of the books, so closer to WindClan, hence less undergrowth and trees since it's nearer to the moor. This might be important and it might not. **

Scar wasn't talking at all, and a strange thought popped suddenly into her head... It was like her brain was trying to push it out and pull it in at the same time. It slipped away, leaving Ivy frustrated.

_What was _that _about?_

This sort of thing drove Ivy completely crazy. No matter how much she tried, it was always a pawstep in front of her, just out of reach. She let out a growl. Scar turned around, slightly surprised, but seemed to decide he had imagined it.

Sighing softly, Ivy attempted to forget about the infuriatingly elusive thought. She wished that sort of thing never happened. Now she'd have that idea trotting around her head for the rest of the day.

"We're there," Slick announced.

They had arrived in a clearing filled with dappled sunlight, spotted with a few wildflowers... And spattered here and there with blood. Rushing water could be heard close by, which was, Ivy guessed, why it was called the Poolside clearing.

Two she-cats were sparring in the middle of the clearing, one brown tabby with spiky fur, and one light brown tabby with markings like the shadow of fern fronds. They didn't notice them coming in, so Scar walked up to them and meowed loudly over the spitting and snarling.

"Hey!" He yowled. They separated, Leaf blinking her round golden eyes, Holly looking at Slick through her own pale orange, narrow optics.

"What do you want?" It sounded more like an insult than a question. The Teacher was obviously not in a very good mood, and had been taking it out on Leaf, who looked battered and was bleeding in several places. She didn't look spent yet at all though.

She really was quite bigger than her, but that just made Ivy more confident that she would be slower. While Scar was explaining to Holly why they had come, she studied Leaf, whose attention was on the two Teachers.

Leaf had powerful back legs, so she could jump high and far. She had a rather short tail, which would help Ivy unbalance her, however it would be harder to bite it or yank on it. Ivy thought that was enough information to have a good chance of winning against the more experienced cat.

Holly was nodding at whatever Scar had said.

"We can always try..." She said. "But I really don't think your Trainee stands much of a chance."

_I'll show you! _She tried to keep calm, getting angry would only affect her fighting. Leaf, who had been listening closely to the Teachers since the start, seemed like she had just caught the fattest squirrel in the forest. No doubt she thought the citypet would be easy to defeat.

Ivy squared into a defensive stance. Her paws were shoulder width apart, her ears down, her tail ready to move out of the way or steady her. She made sure to be almost unmovable, she was certain Leaf would attack first.

She did.

In a massive leap, Leaf launched herself at Ivy. She heard Holly give a little meow of satisfaction at her Trainee's performance. Quick as a flash, Ivy darted under her belly, her opponent nearly missing her and landing with a thump, slightly stunned with the force, where Ivy had been only a heartbeat before.

If she got pinned by the heavier cat, she was as good as defeated, and it wouldn't help her reputation. This time she leapt first, taking advantage of Leaf's slightly stunned state.

She was no fool, and knew that she couldn't pin Leaf underneath her. However, she still landed on her back, and started to claw at the fur with her front paws, clinging onto Leaf with her back legs. She raked the top of her head as the other she-cat bucked to try and throw her off. So Ivy clung on tighter, knowing that she was finished if she fell.

Holly and Scar had disappeared from her mind, so had every other thought, she had to win this fight and nothing else mattered in that instant.

She switched, attacking her flanks with her back claws and holding on by sinking her front claws into Leaf's pelt. Her opponent was weakening. But then, she rolled over.

Ivy jumped off just in time, and Leaf whipped around to face her again. The light of battle was gleaming in her eyes, Ivy was sure it was in her own too.

This time, Leaf jumped much closer to the ground, making it impossible for Ivy to duck like she had done the previous time. She threw herself to the side at the last moment, panting. Before her opponent had a chance to turn around, she grabbed her back leg between her jaws and tugged hard, and Leaf collapsed to the ground with a wail of surprise and pain.

She was defeated.

Holly's eyes were about to pop out. Scar's jaw was going to hit the floor any second. She had impressed them. But the problem was their surprise. They were shocked that she had won.

_One day will come when cats will only be surprised if I lose a fight._

**Ooh, someone's determined to shake off the 'little citypet' reputation. Let's hope she manages. I'm getting great ideas for this, so follow, fav, REVIEW, all that stuff. Next chapter should be quite short, but it might not be, depending on what it's about exactly. I'm kind of making this up as I go, you know, but it's based around one idea.**

**Should see you soon, then.**

**Oh wait I was about to forget the disclaimer again.**

**Crystalshine: Leaf, say the disclaimer.**

**Leaf: *scowls* why should I do that?**

**Crystalshine: because without me you wouldn't be alive? You owe me a disclaimer at least...  
**

**Leaf: yeah, maybe, but it's also your fault that I got beaten by Ivy, an now Holly's going to think I'm useless.**

**Crystalshine: say it or I'll plan further embarrassment in the next chapters.**

**Leaf: WOAH calm down. Crystalshine doesn't own the Warriors world, that would be the Erins. She owns the plot and her characters, if she did own Warriors, Willowbreeze would have lived forever with Crookedstar.**

**Crystalshine: *cries***

**Ok, well bye.**

**OOPS I forgot something. Here it is:**

_Bonus scene_

**_Unknown POV_**

_They were coming out of _the clearing with a pool on the side. The two younger she-cats were battered and bloody. But the cream-splotched tabby held the observer's attention. She was new. She smelled different than the others. He wondered who she was.

He often came here, hung around... watched.

He liked how forbidden and dangerous it was. He knew he would get into trouble if he was found here. But he had never been seen, heard, or scented, to his knowledge at least.

His blue eyes scanned the scene. The she-cat, who he knew was called Leaf, was limping, favouring one of her back paws. The two grown cats both looked stunned. The observer wondered what had happened.

He would have to find a hiding place in the clearing, so he could watch what happened there too.

Now, he had to go home.

But he would be back again.

**Haha, good luck figuring that one out! This chapter is already longer than usual, so see y'all. Tell me what you thought of the bonus scene, and that means REVIEW! Also, what do you think of the little thought that Ivy couldn't hold on to near the beginning? It's pretty important. **

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW OR TIGERSTAR WILL GET YOU!)**


	26. Chapter 26

**Hi, you know who it is, the kinda crazy gal who writes this fanfic. Talking about this story, it's getting closer to the important part. This story will have at least 40 chapters, probably more than 50, so you guys have a nice treat. My stories will probably not all be that long.**

**Also this story is now rated T, so now I won't have to be all specific about stuff. I'm not even sure if that was a proper sentence but whatever.**

**Mintflight0245 - Your reviews always make me laugh! And yeah, I love Scar too - I don't know if you saw the Disney movie The Lion King, that's where I got his name. So I relate to the Disney Scar because, as he infamously said, he is "surrounded by idiots", and to my Scar because he's sarcastic and because he has the same name as Disney Scar... If that made any sense. Probably not.**

**Chapter now! **

_Chapter 26_

_Ivy dreamt of the stars that night. They were so close... Close enough to touch. They shone so bright, much brighter than she had ever seen in real life - and there were so many!_

_She felt like she could take off with one jump, and leap over the stars. They were so beautiful, so close, yet so cold and far away. Not everyone could reach them. She vowed to herself that, someday, she would manage it._

_This wasn't like the Land of Stars. It was swathed in light, bathed in brightness. The moon streaked beams of white across the star-specked sky, barely a cloud hiding the brilliant light of the stars._

_She couldn't take her eyes off them. The midnight sky, the colour of her eyes, sparkled with all the stars of the world. More than she could ever have imagined. She reached out to touch them -_

_And woke up._

_But this wasn't the Trainees' den. It wasn't anywhere she had ever been before. But she recognised the cat. It was her sister, Jolie._

_Suddenly, she was hit by an impression of déjà-vu. She had been in this place before. And she knew what her sister was about to say._

_"Ivy..." Jolie began. "There is something I must tell you."_

_This time, the she-cat stepped aside to reveal a glistening sliver pool, reflecting starlight from above._

_"The silver jay has flown away, but a bird of another feather will soon cross the ivy's way._

_He heralds the thunder, listen or storms will sink under._

_But beware the blood, or it will wash everything in a flood_

_And beware the holly, for it may choke the ivy._

_Thunder will come after, before is the saviour_

_The forest will flame, and the ivy will take the blame_

_If the thunder is not won over_

_And there, at the end, lies darkness."_

_A succession of pictures flashed in the bottom of the pool._

_A light grey cat with blue eyes and long legs came first, crouched in the shadows... He seemed to be watching something... Observing._

_The picture was replaced by a huge storm. Lightening cracked, heavy rain battered the ground. Then, the floor split open. The gap in the earth was widening. Ivy gasped in horror. _It's unnatural! _The rain poured into the abyss, but it didn't spill over._

_The pool had disappeared. Ivy and Jolie were inside the pictures now._

_Suddenly, the image changed. This time, it showed a calm, smooth flowing river, and Ivy was standing in it. But the water clung to her pelt, stank of salt and rust - it was blood! Ivy tried to run to the bank, but her paws were glued to the riverbed. She yowled in terror. A huge wave was coming. It was crimson, thick. A tide of blood was coming._

_It was about to crash on top of Ivy's head, and the image changed again. This time, Ivy was tangled in a holly bush. The spiked leaves seemed to want to tear her pelt off. They ensnared her, she was sinking deeper into the bush, she felt like she was drowning in a spiky sea of holly. She was going to be completely submerged, and then, suddenly, the holly caught on fire._

_Its grip weakened and she leapt away, her pelt singed and smoking. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't keep the ends of her fur from visibly smoking, though she didn't feel a burn._

_Then, rain started pouring again. Thunder rumbled. A storm the likes of which she had never heard of started. The last thing she saw before the lightening hit her was a white-hot glare of light - and then all went black._

Ivy woke up in cold sweat, panting, her nightmare, which had been so incredibly realistic, still fresh in her mind.

She had to get some air. She had to clear her mind. She had to breathe.

She tried to creep out of the Trainees' den, but stepped on Flame's tail. Her eyes snapped open.

"What are you doing?" Flame hissed under her breath.

"I'm just getting some air." Ivy explained. "I'll be back real soon."

The fire-pelted she-cat narrowed her dark amber eyes, and flicked her black-tipped tail. Ivy, not sure what to do, edged away through the sea of pelts to the exit, Flame's burning eyes still on her.

Once out in the cool night air, she regretted her choice. The night was dark, the moon was barely a claw scratch of light in the sky, and, far from those of her dream, the stars were distant and dull, neither providing much light.

But Flame would no doubt be suspicious if she just came back, so she shook herself mentally and tried to ignore the darkness that pressed around her. She sneaked around to the entrance, and slunk out.

The forest was, she admitted grudgingly to herself, beautiful despite the lack of light. Her sharp feline night vision was useful to pick her way around bushes and brambles, and tree trunks.

She went a random way, letting her paws guide her, not really caring where she ended up; she could always follow her own scent trail back to the camp.

She didn't really want to escape anymore. The Blood offered shelter, prey, prestige if you did well. She still wasn't sure about the Testing - but there was a while until that yet.

She could have glory if she rose in the ranks of the Blood. Training offered new challenges, like fighting Leaf had proved, as she had never fought a bigger cat than her before. She knew she could do well - could be great, even - but did she really want to wade through blood to reach the stars?

She had arrived at a pretty clearing, the little moonlight there was filtering through the branches that stretched across the space. She sat down in the middle, unaware that somecat was watching her.

She started to wash her paw, soaking in the fresh air as opposed to the stuffiness of the crowded Trainees' den. She was becoming more accustomed to the faint light and oppressive darkness, though she didn't think that her irrational fear would ever completely go away.

She looked around, trying to peer into the darkness -

and reeled back in shock.

Two blue eyes were in the shadows, watching her. She strained her own eyes. She saw he was a light grey pelted tom with long legs - he was the observer from the nightmare!

He walked out with a sigh.

"I knew I'd get spotted eventually." He strode over to her, and she backed away.

_Who's _he? _I've never seen him. He certainly isn't from the Blood._

She knew all the Trainees, an the tom didn't look much older than her.

"Who are you?" she asked. "And what are you doing here?"

The tom lay down. "Why down you sit down, and I'll tell you."

Ivy was about to refuse, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she obeyed. "Tell me now."

The light grey tom meowed. "I'm Heronpaw. I'm an apprentice of ThunderClan." Seeing her confused expression, he explained. "ThunderClan is one of the four forest Clans. They're big groups of cats who hunt and look out for each other, and guard their borders.

"The Clans are enemies, we fight for food, especially in leaf-bare - the cold season, you know - and we have huge epic battles. We have a code as well, but that's very long. For example, the queens and elders have to be fed first, you can't eat while you're out hunting, you have to wait until you've brought your prey back to camp, the leader's word is law, the deputy becomes leader, should the deputy die, the leader must appoint the new one before moonhigh."

Ivy's head spun slightly. All this was hard to take in at once, and Heronpaw - _what a weird name _\- used many strange words, but it was comprehensible.

"Tell me more." she urged, curious about the Clans and their lifestyles.

"There's ShadowClan, they're the scariest Clan. They start the most battles, they're very sneaky and slink around in the shadows, like their name suggests. Then their's WindClan. They're very fast, but they're rather small, so us ThunderClan warriors use our strength to beat them in battle."

Ivy interrupted. "Wouldn't it be smarter to work on _your _speed instead?" she argued, thinking about her fight with Leaf.

"They're really fast, Ivy. Far too fast for most ThunderClan warriors to equal." Ivy nodded, then something registered. She had never told him her name.

"How do you know I'm called Ivy?" she questioned.

"I've been... hanging around this place for awhile." Heronpaw admitted. "I like watching other cats, working on my stalking. There's less undergrowth here than in ThunderClan territory, so it's good practise at hiding in sparse cover."

"I want to know more about where you come from." Ivy was really curious now. She wanted to know more.

"I'm sorry - I have to leave or I'll be missed." Heronpaw said. "I'm not supposed to be out of camp, and especially not out of the territory."

On an impulse, Ivy said, "Meet me here tomorrow night at moonpeak - I mean, moonhigh!" She corrected herself, remembering his weird vocabulary. He nodded his light grey head, and darted into the shadows, back to his Clan.

Ivy walked excitedly back to camp, thinking about Heronpaw and the different world he seemed to live in.

But what she didn't see was the pair of burning amber eyes that followed her back.

**Loads of cats spying, aren't there. REVIEW is all I can say, and also that you guys are really lucky to get TWO updates in ONE day, that will probably never happen again. Disclaimer time.**

**Crystalshine: Heronpaw, say the disclaimer.**

**Heronpaw: you're not my mentor.**

**Crystalshine: what if I _am _your mentor?**

**Heronpaw: no you aren't. My mentor is Tawnydapple.**

**Crystalshine: why are those disclaimers always so hard? Just say it already or I'll tell Sootstar what you've been doing at night and you'll be picking fleas off the elders for a moon.**

**Heronpaw: *very afraid* Crystalshine doesn't own anything apart from the plot, her characters, and her unfair threats. **

**Crystalshine: that's right, otherwise Stormfur and Brook would have stayed in ThunderClan forever! I really like Brook and Stormfur.**

**Sooo... The Clans are getting involved aren't they. That's a PLOT TWIST. Don't worry, there'll be lots more!**

**Review... What do you think the prophecy means? Who was observing her? Will Ivy really choose to stay in the Blood for the glory it could bring her? REVIEW!**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW or I'll set Scourge on you!)**


	27. Chapter 27

**ARGH GUYS I'M SO STUPID! I FORGOT TO UPLOAD THIS! And there I was, getting all offended because no one was reviewing XD**

**So many chapters and we aren't even halfway through! **

**MintflightO245 - good to know! I'm happy my story is receiving such a positive response! I had no idea I'd come this far! I usually get very motivated for something for awhile, and then just forget about it or get bored of it, so that's a nice surprise for myself.**

**Ivystorm - your review made me laugh (again)! I'm glad you like it, I've been working on new one-shots, but here is your update! Yes, ShadowClan is my fav Clan too, but since it's on the other side from the Twolegplace, it wouldn't make sense, you see. It'll play its part though - and one important part it will be...**

**Fun fact: I will do an explanation of the prophecy when the book is over - not anytime soon!**

**Chapter time!**

_Chapter 27_

_Ivy loped through the dark _forest, on her way to meet Heronpaw again. They would hopefully have more time to talk than during their short first meeting. She was so curious about the Clans where he lived; such a different way of life! She wanted to know about his weird name too - she understood the 'Heron' part was because of his long legs, but why not keep it simple and just call him Heron then?

Questions raced through her mind, she wished she could go faster but her muscles were aching after a fierce training session where Scar had pushed her hard. He had explained that the Testing time would not change for her: she would have to work twice as hard as the others to reach their level before the dead-line. She had lost a fight against Cloud, but won one against Sky.

A sudden wave of paranoia hit her, and she whipped around, certain that she was being watched. But all she could see were shadows. The darkness and lack of sleep were messing with her mind.

Then, she smelled rabbit. Of course, no normal wild cat just strolls past a juicy, fat young rabbit, and, ignoring her screaming muscles, she crouched down, slightly favouring her scratched forepaw, trying not to make too much noise until she found the source of the scent.

She pinpointed it, just behind a thick holly bush... She could see it, hear its scuffling, smell its mouthwatering scent. She stalked around the bush - and jumped when a holly leaf raked her fur. She was transported back to her dream of being choked by holly, drowning in it...

The rabbit hopped away in a panic, and she hissed in frustration. _I could have caught that! _she inwardly screamed at herself.

Still silently fuming at her own stupid reaction - _it's just a holly bush for goodness' sake! - _she went back on her way to the clearing for her second meeting with Heronpaw.

When she arrived, he was already there.

"Hey Ivy!" He meowed, waving his tail.

"Hey." Ivy was too preoccupied by all the questions stampeding in her mind to sound really enthusiastic - after all, only a few of her questions would be answered tonight. She sat down comfortably in the grass, looking from side to side, the darkness still creeping her out. "Can I ask you some questions?"

The grey cat nodded. "Sure," he invited, "ask away."

"Okay." Ivy said. "Why is your name so weird?" She didn't know what reaction she expected from him to her possibly offensive sentence. One thing she certainly didn't expect, however, was for him to burst out laughing, though he was obviously trying to contain it to minimise the risk of being caught.

"My name..." he said when he'd finished laughing his head off, " Well, in the Clans, it's pretty complicated. You guys just keep the same name your whole life right." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, and Ivy wondered how long he had been spying on them. She nodded to show she was following.

"Well we don't," he went on. "We change names. You see, we get a name when we're born - mine was Heronkit, because I have long legs like a heron, but it can be mostly anything as long as it ends with 'kit'. It always describes the kit in some way.

At six moons, we become apprentices, like your Trainees, and have an assigned mentor, like your Teachers, mine's a she-cat called Tawnydapple. We keep the prefix, but replace 'kit' with 'paw'." He paused. "So far so good?"

Ivy's head was swimming a bit but she nodded again. "Yup," she confirmed. "So you're an apprentice, because your name ends with 'paw'."

"Yes. Our training isn't the same as yours." Heronpaw shuddered. "We don't train claws out, it's not allowed to hurt a Clanmate. It's much less brutal, and our moves are... cleaner, in a way, more predetermined, more exact, designed against a specific opponent and made do to one or more specific things."

"Okay, and then when you pass your Testing?" Ivy had a feeling something this complicated wouldn't stop there. "But wait, since you can't harm your Clanmates, you don't have a Testing?"

Heronpaw shuddered even harder. "StarClan, no! Your Testing is _awful._" He said. "No, we have a lot of assessments, like, I dunno, catching five pieces of prey in a fixed place or winning a spar with our mentor, and then there's a final, harder test." _That's weird, _Ivy thought to herself.

"Okay..."

Heronpaw went on. "The hard test at the end determines whether or not you'll become a warrior, so you won't be an apprentice anymore. Very little cats fail it, and it's super embarrassing to. Your name changes again. This time, the Clan leader chooses it. It's a new suffix. It will often be 'tail' or 'pelt' or 'fur', but most of the leaders try to stay creative, like 'sky' or 'echo' or 'dapple' or 'moon'. I'm hoping to not get a mouthful, like Heronfeather, but maybe Heronwing? I'll probably get Heronleg though... You guess why."

This was getting clearer. Then Heronpaw continued. "The Clan leader gets nine lives and a new suffix, which is invariably 'star'."

"What's that about the nine lives?" Ivy sputtered. "I thought that was a tale crazy queens told kittens."

"It's not," stated Heronpaw. He explained about StarClan, Clan hierarchy, the Warrior Code, borders, the trouble they'd had with RiverClan over Sunningrocks again... Now she understood what a risk she was taking, breaking the Code, going out without permission...

That night, Ivy left with a full head, and when she returned, way past moonpeak, she settled down in her nest and dreamed of the mighty Sootstar, leader of ThunderClan, and the other Clan leaders, Duskstar of ShadowClan, Leopardstar of WindClan, and Clearstar of RiverClan, arguing over something that Ivy knew nothing about.

_**General POV**_

Little did she know, somecat was spying on her again... They had watched her sneak out, observed her meeting with Heronpaw, taken in every single detail.

But they weren't going to turn her in. No. It wasn't the right time. But the silent observer knew that this could be useful information some day...

So they kept on watching.

**Have I got you puzzled? Or perhaps bamboozled? Either way, I hope you're confused and have no idea who the observer is.** **Let me just tell you, that cat's intentions are wayyy less harmless than Heronpaw's.**

**OOPS I was about to post the chapter when I remembered! Disclaimer time!**

**Crystalshine - mysterious observer, say the disclaimer.**

**Mysterious observer - why exactly should I?**

**Crystalshine - I could give you... certain rewards...**

**Mysterious observer - *leans in* what kind?**

**Crystalshine - leadership of the Blood later on, an opportunity to use Ivy's secret...**

**Mysterious observer - Crystalshine doesn't own Warriors, if she did Mothpool would be cannon (WHYYY go listen to their song by Blixemi on YT it's heartbreaking even if you don't like lesbians)**

**As always, review! Also I have a FictionPress account now, CrystalWritesHerOwnBook. I've just published one poem (like I said, versatile writer and all that), so go check that out if you want to? I'll be less active on there though.**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (you know the drill, REVIEW or Hawkfrost will come for you in your sleep!)**


	28. Chapter 28

**Sorry if this is kinda late, I'm busy with homework and my other stories.**

**Guest - I promise nothing really bad will happen to Ivy right now. The horrible stuff happens later... *evil smirk* **

**Mintflight0245 - Yes, he is, but he's a good guy, and a key part of the plotline right now. He'll also be a good side character further along. Can't spoil...**

**ivystorm - YES how do people not ship Mothpool I mean they're so [insert huge heart]. And Ivy won't die... Not yet, anyway. *evil smirk* I'm smirking a lot, aren't I. I think Hawkfrost's rubbing off on me.**

**REVEAL: Heronpaw is the "bird of another feather" mentioned in the prophecy. Get my drift? Both jays and herons are birds! I'm a genius. Yes, yes, the flowers, the standing ovations...**

**So... We left off at the moment when the mysterious observer follows Ivy again, but this is a time skip of about a moon.**

**There's a nice but slightly gory fight scene in there, so enjoy! Or not, for reasons that will be revealed.**

_Chapter 28_

_Ivy woke up that morning _after a fierce training session with Crystal, who had seemed in an unusually bad mood. She stretched, muscle rippling under her sleek coat. The Blood had offered a place to train better, to fight harder. She wasn't a citypet anymore. All of that had been left behind.

She was lucky that Scar was a good Teacher, he had never hit her outside of Training, though he came up with punishments such as doing multiple laps around the large clearing.

Now, she met Heronpaw every other night, leaving each other at moonpeak, or, as he called it, moonhigh. Some nights, he couldn't come because of the Gatherings, but he would make up for it by telling her about it the next time they met. She knew as much of Clan business as he did, though she was still learning all the elements of the Code, out of curiosity.

It was very interesting to hear of such a different way of life, especially now that she was used to living here, in the Blood. The names, for example

Leaving Heronpaw at moonpeak meant that she had half a training session with Crystal, and the other nights meant long sessions.

She had become closer friends with Cloud, having decided that the moment when she saw her turn into a creepy psycho cat had been a figment of her imagination. Sky often joined them to eat and gossip, and, to be honest, she was pretty certain he liked Cloud. It was funny - Cloud and Sky. She wasn't sure if Cloud liked him back though, and didn't dare ask.

She hadn't talked much to Night, they lived in separate dens, and any cat other than the Teacher Training or helping Train a Trainee was considered meddling.

Slick had finished his Training not long ago, and she had little opportunities to catch up with him.

She still didn't know much about Flame, other than that she probably knew a lot about _her. _It freaked her out slightly. Flame mostly hung out alone, but during Training, she was fire.

She could beat anyone. She had left all the cats in the Trainees' den sprawled on the floor and aching all over. All the cats except Ivy, but only because they hadn't fought yet. Today was her turn though.

Her Teacher was an old grey she-cat with orange eyes, called Ash. She had a reputation as the toughest Teacher, only the most promising cats were assigned to her to Train, according to the other Trainees. Flame often had some scratches, nothing permanent most of the time, but it was said that she was much worse when she was younger.

No wonder Flame was such a great fighter, with a cat like that to Train her and push her limits. And now, Ivy was Training against her. There was no hope - no hope at all - that she would win. She knew she was strong: she'd won against almost all the Trainees, with the exception of Buttercup.

Small, looks fragile, could kill you. The golden spotted she-cat was too fast and too unpredictable for the others to follow, apart from Flame of course. Ivy had come so close to winning, but she hadn't expected Buttercup to grab her tail with her back claws.

Cloud was stretching next to her.

"'Morning," Ivy yawned.

"Hi," responded her friend, her voice strained from the stretches. "Today's the day, huh?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure I'll manage to beat Flame."

"Are you kidding?" Cloud gasped. "No cat's beaten her since she started Training. There's _no way _anycat, even you, could do it."

"Thanks for the encouragement," Ivy mumbled.

Sky butted in, eyes slightly blurry with sleep. "I'm sure you'll do great, I'm certain you can do it," he touched her shoulder with his tail-tip. "What's the worst that can happen? You'll win."

"Don't hold your breath, Sky." Ivy was being unreasonable and she knew it, but she couldn't bear the idea of getting beaten again.

Scar's head appeared in the circle of the den entrance. "Ivy! Hurry up!" He had determination on his face and hope in his eyes. He'd be so disappointed if she lost... He' have to act neutral at Ash's smug muzzle. He'd get the shame as well; the Teacher Trains the Trainee, in the Blood, that meant that if the Trainee failed, the Teacher had failed too.

She was going to let him down. She was sure of it. Cloud was right, there was no way she'd win.

She tried to walk over at Scar normally. Flame had left the den already, and was probably warming up for her next easy fight.

She tried not to look hopeless, but failed. A stupid thought came into her mind at that moment. She wished Slick had given her those acting lessons.

"What's wrong?" Scar asked her.

"Oh, nothing," Ivy answered sarcastically, "just that I'm about to get beaten into prey-dust by the best fighter in the Trainees' den, apart from that everything's fine."

Scar hissed a bit. "Don't cheek me. Sarcasm is _my _department." Ivy didn't respond.

_Doesn't take much to annoy him today. Maybe he's just as anxious as I am about losing. It's a battle between Teachers as much as a battle between Trainees._

They hurried to the clearing to meet Flame and Ash. As predicted, Flame was stretching under her Teacher's harsh orders.

"Stretch farther... Farther than that!" Ash's fierce orange eyes gleamed. "How do you expect to win this fight if you can't even _stretch _properly?"

Ivy felt a small stab of pity as Flame strained and stretched as far as her body would let her, obeying Ash's orders without fail but clearly not enjoying it. At least Scar was pretty nice, by Blood standards.

Then Flame saw them. Her burning amber optics narrowed, and she stretched harder, a small growl escaping her throat with the effort. Ivy knew that there was no possibility of beating someone so competitive and skilled, but she'd have to try anyway.

Scar gave her some stretches to do, and Ivy broke eye contact with the bright orange she-cat, glad of the excuse. Ivy did her best to stretch, but her training with Crystal had left her sore and bruised all over, and she wasn't in the best condition for fighting more.

But she had no choice when Ash declared Flame ready and told them to start the fight.

The two she-cats stalked around each other, dark blue eyes meeting burning amber. Ivy thought that Flame wouldn't attack first, so she did. Flame reared up easily and pushed her away by thrusting out her forepaws, landing Ivy in the dust, staggering a little from her momentum. While she was still picking herself up her opponent leapt on top of her and started raking at her, red welling up where claws met flesh.

Ivy cried out in pain, trying to concentrate. She couldn't push Flame off with her forepaws, they were pinned to her chest by Flame's weight. She couldn't push her off with back paws either, they couldn't fit between them, and she couldn't bite her opponent's face as it was smothered by orange fur. And idea crossed her mind: what if she used Buttercup's move?

She brought her hindlegs up and wedged Flame's tail between her claws, before tugging as hard as she could. The fire-coloured she-cat let out a startled yowl as her tail was pulled and clawed, and was easily pulled off.

Ivy took her chance and tried to pin her, raking at her ears, taking care to tuck her tail in close to her flank, but she hadn't been watching her face and Flame took a heavy swipe at it. Blood trickled down into Ivy's eyes, partially blinding her, and she gasped in surprise and confusion.

Within a heartbeat, she was bowled over with Flame biting at her forepaw so hard Ivy felt like she was searing it off. She yowled through the blood that had started to go further down her face from her forehead, and rolling down her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth like tears.

She rolled her head to the side, trying to ignore the burning pain as Flame continued clawing every mouse-length of her pelt, her eyes burning with a fire she'd never seen before. She screwed her eyes tightly shut when she saw the gloating look on Ash's face. Finally done, Flame stood over Ivy, a paw on her chest and the other on her throat, head tilted proudly at another fight won, though her own blood tinged her pelt darker.

Ash only showed smugness, no pride, as she watched her Trainee win yet again. Scar though, seemed, beneath the shame, genuinely concerned for Ivy. She could feel her blood trickling through her fur and staining the dusty ground beneath her, pain flowing through her like fire. She wanted to sleep, close her eyes, the darkness was so tempting... But she hung on. She had to.

She had too much to live for to let Flame take that away.

**Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger. Call me evil, tell me how much you want to kill me, I love to see what an impact this sort of thing has on readers again, after Jay got such a huge reaction.**

**I promise she won't die, that would be boring. But I've been known to take back my word... Either way, this shows how terrible conditions are in the Blood, like a Trainee almost killed another one without their Teachers blinking an eye, like, whatever, half of them are gonna die anyway. **

**She's lucky she's got Scar and not someone like Ash to Train her, Scar will probably get her help. **

**Keep an eye out for the next chapter!**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (don't forget to tell me how evil I am, so REVIEW)**


	29. Chapter 29

**I can't believe how many chapters there are now. I MEAN ****_29\. _****That's so much. I always knew there'd be like 50 chapters, but now I'm doubting, it'll probably be more. Plus I never really looked that far ahead, to be honest.**

**I skipped the part when she was healed because that was boring.**

**Chappie time! This one will look boring at first but be interesting.**

_Chapter 29_

_Ivy blinked her eyes open _to see Slick bending over her, and nearly jumped back in surprise.

He had treated her when she was on the verge of death, nursed her back to life like she had done for him. It had taken him almost half a moon, not eating enough, barely sleeping, always at her side. Scar had taken care of the hunting, explaining that it was the least he could do after just watching as she got torn apart.

Scar had scolded Flame, but nothing had happened to her for nearly killing a fellow Trainee.

She hadn't seen Heronpaw for so long, she hoped he wasn't worrying, or thinking she'd stopped meeting him on purpose. She loved their meetings, but always felt like she was being watched on the way. She had long since attributed it to imagination mixed with uneasiness at the dark.

Cloud had sort of drifted away like, well, a cloud. She talked to Flame on a daily basis, and they seemed to be closer than she had ever been to Ivy. Sky, on the other paw, and his littermate Leaf, had made an even stronger friendship with her, and she was grateful that they'd stuck by her, staying with her during their free time.

One conversation had stuck in Ivy's mind:

_Flashback_

_"She didn't go easy on you." Sky commented. "She didn't do that with anycat else."_

_Leaf nodded. "Maybe she was bitter because you nearly beat her at the beginning?" she suggested._

_"That's possible," Ivy agreed._

_"Or maybe she just hates you for some reason." Leaf shrugged._

_"Thanks for the reassurance," Ivy joked, "it make me feel super safe to know there's the best Trainee fighter who might be wanting to kill me for no apparent reason."_

_She was joking around about it, but inside, her brain was whirring. What if Flame really _did _hate her? And, if so, why?_

"Hi Slick."

"Are you feeling okay?" Slick asked immediately.

Ivy sighed. "I'm fine, Slick, I've told you already." She was exasperated. "All I want is to get out of this den, my wounds have healed."

Yet he still fussed over her like a worried queen, checking her injuries, carefully removing poultices to replace them with cobwebs... She was great, really. She wanted to fight, run, hunt, meet Heronpaw, explore with him some more, but she couldn't when she was stuck in the Trainees' den with a fussy tom who wouldn't let her out of his sight.

"So,"Ivy began after his inspection, "I guess I'm staying here for a few more day?"

"Actually," Slick started, "you should be fine as long as you keep some cobwebs on."

"So I can go on Training?"

He hesitated a bit. "Well... Okay. But I'll tell Scar not to do anything too hard."

Ivy wanted to yowl in relief, she was so happy to finally be able to move and do everything that she had missed so much. She hoped Heronpaw would be there at moonpeak, though he had probably stopped coming. She had been counting the days, and she knew that she would normally meet him that night.

* * *

Ivy padded through the dark, jumping at the slightest sounds. The darkness had stopped scaring her long ago with all her night escapades, but it had still unsettled her a lot until she'd got injured. Now, it was back to square one, and the young she-cat felt shadows pressing in on all sides, suffocating and thick, though, surprisingly, she didn't feel observed. She hurried into a sprint to the clearing, hoping to find Heronpaw there.

She did.

He didn't look like he was waiting for somecat though. He was watching the stars, as if looking for something he had lost. She crept up beside him and touched him lightly on the shoulder with her paw.

"AAAH!" He nearly screamed. Then he saw who it was. "I-Ivy? I thought you'd stopped meeting me."

"Why would I stop meeting you? I got injured in battle training, you know, that she-cat, Flame, that I told you about, she nearly killed me."

Heronpaw shivered in a mixture of horror and disgust. "That must have been terrible."

"It... It wasn't that bad actually. Just like falling slowly asleep into a nest of darkness." Ivy's voice took on a pensive and dreamy quality.

The apprentice's eyes rounded in shock, but, to his credit, he said nothing.

"So what's happened while I was gone?"

"Well, RiverClan won the fight for Sunningrocks this time, we'll be back though. Maplespot was gravely injured, she's in the medicine den. You know, the one with the really weird but pretty eyes."

Ivy remembered her. According to Heronpaw she was a tortoiseshell whose eyes were each half-blue, half-green.

They talked about the last Gathering, how Clearstar was rumoured to be on his last life, how Heronpaw's training was going with Tawnydapple...

When moonpeak came, Ivy had just one more question.

"Heronpaw!" she called. "Wait. Why were you here when you said thought I'd stopped meeting with you?"

His blue eyes flicked from side to side like a trapped bird. "I... I waited because I kind of like you!" he blurted out, before fleeing into the forest.

Ivy stood there, mouth hanging open in shock, brain still registering his words. _Why would he like _me _though? He's told me plenty of times how pretty he thinks the medicine cat apprentice Poppypaw, is!_

She didn't understand. She needed time to think, and so took the long way back to camp, the one that curved around the Clans' territories and led to the land close to the gorge. She wanted to stop by for a second.

Later, she reached her favourite spot, the calmest one with the slowest waters. But, wanting to change it up a bit, she headed towards the place with the fastest currents slamming against the rocks. As she neared, she started hearing voices. Not wanting to be caught outside at night, and without permission, Ivy hid in a bush in front of her.

She peeked out, keeping her eyes slitted in the hope that their dark blue wouldn't stand out against the green. It was Flame and Cloud, both sitting right at the edge of the gorge. She held in a gasp, Heronpaw forgotten. _What are they doing here?_

The friends were talking quietly, Flame looking deep into Cloud's eyes. _I hope I'm not intruding on something private._

But then, Cloud did something unexpected. She jumped off.

Flame just watched, with a light in her eyes that Ivy couldn't quite place but which sent chills down her spine.

She ran.

Ran, with Flame's expression blazing in her mind, burning her brain, searing away all other thoughts.

**Well I told you this would be interesting. Y_et another _cliffie, you guys love them, I know. We learn stuff, Heronpaw likes Ivy, ooooooh finally some romance it's been aaaages since Jay died now. She don't like him back though...**

**AAAND the most pressing question... WHY did Cloud commit suicide? Why did she jump off? Was Flame trying to dissuade her? But it doesn't look like it. **

**AND THE PLOT THICKENS.**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan**


	30. Chapter 30

**Hey people! I changed the summary because the old one was way too boring. Do you like it?**

**Mintflight0245 - YOU EVIL - HOW DARE YOU - MISTSHADE - Yeah, for now I'm not sure I can compete with your evilness. For now. And yup, buh-bye Cloud. She was sorta annoying to me, I don't know why... I killed her and made a great plot development! Two birds, one stone, BAM. And poor Heronpaw's getting friendzoned. He'll get friendzoned again before this story's over.**

**Hey, guys, well, Cloud dying... I'm about just as much a reader as you, I've just got the broad lines, but heck those lines are good. I'm still figuring out stuff, who exactly will be evil, personalities, Ivy's life basically. I've thought as far as to when and how she dies, and in what circumstances, and everything in the prophecy, as well as some nice, interesting side plots. And some nice, complicated villains. BUT still adding details. I mean... I really wasn't expecting Cloud to die until a week or so ago.**

**Summary: I write stuff and go "Ooh, this is what's happening now? Cool."**

**Chappie time! I guarantee that you will like this.**

_Chapter 30_

_Ivy wasn't running towards camp. _She didn't care where she was running. What had Flame done? What had pushed Cloud to do that?

Eventually, she slowed down, in a nice open stretch of grass. It was a pretty place, calming. The wind rustled through the sweet-scented heather, singing to the moon that hung in the clear, black, star-specked sky.

This was the most peaceful night she had ever been out on. Ivy sat down, still watching the stars and the darkness between them, and made a wish by a shooting star.

_I wish for somewhere to live where I could be happy._

The comet blazed a trail through the jet-black sky, and disappeared behind Highstones.

Ivy wanted answers, sure. Cloud dying was terrible, the horrified expression on her face as she fell stuck in Ivy's mind. She had thrown herself off, Flame had just happened to be there and had nothing to do with it. But she came first. She made a wish for _herself_, to find a place of safety, where she could live without fear.

The Blood wasn't such a place. Heronpaw's world seemed so much better, somewhere to grow up in. But did she want to leave? Could she? What if the feeling of being watched on her way to meetings with the apprentice wasn't just a feeling, a silly impression to be ignored? What if someone really was observing her?

She was sure that if a cat really was following her, and she decided to leave to live in ThunderClan they would tell the Governor and send cats to kill her.

And then... There was Heronpaw himself. Seeing him again would be dreadfully awkward. She'd had no idea he felt that way, and she certainly didn't feel the same about him. She winced at the thought. She really didn't want to friendzone anycat, or hurt their feelings that way, but she had no experience... She didn't know how to react.

Did she really want to leave the Blood though? It was a place where a cat with enough ambition and skill could rise to power, at the head of such an unstoppable force she could do anything... She shook her head. She was being irrational. She could never get a high place in such a ruthless group.

She tried to empty her mind as she lifted her head up towards the stars. She wanted to stay, but she wanted to leave too, though attempting it would be madness. Clouds were covering the moon, and she wondered if StarClan was trying to tell her something. She liked to think that it existed, and that Jolie and Jay got a place like that too.

She was acting stupid, though. Heronpaw's stories of StarClan... They were just stories. Weren't they?

She curled up on the soft grass, breathing deeply, head still tilted towards the sky, and, finally, fell asleep.

_A familiar white she-cat appeared before her eyes, her pelt washed in starlight. The Land of Stars. _

_"Crystal, hi!" Ivy greeted her friend._

_"Hey," Crystal answered absentmindedly, not looking at Ivy. She sat down on the grass, the little pinpricks of light that littered the ground shooting away as if to give her space, creating a perfect dark circle around her. She was facing away from Ivy, her head lifted to stare at the sky. _

_Something was wrong. Ivy knew it. Something bad was going to happen._

_Ivy got closer, keeping an eye on their surroundings. "What are you looking at?" She asked, the ice-eyed cat still looking the opposite way._

_She didn't get an answer. _

_"The darkness between the stars." Crystal's voice was hoarse and unnatural. A column of ice shot up to surround her, wrapped in black mist. Ivy took a frightened step back. What was happening? "It grows, ever spreading, ever more powerful."_

_The stranger - this was certainly not her friend - whirled around to stare intently at Ivy... Whose pelt spiked in terror. The white she-cat's eyes were black. They were completely black. Dark voids of emptiness, magnetic, powerful, her teeth bared in a mad grin. "It will conquer the stars! Break them! Vengeance will be had for what the light put it through!"_

_The fake Crystal leaped forwards without hesitation, shattering the barrier of ice into a million tiny shards, and going straight for Ivy. Her black eyes blazed like cold fire, the darkness that the ice had been swathed in shrouding her. Her pelt absorbed it, seeming to make the impersonator grow larger, her fangs sharper, her claws longer._

_White fur muffled Ivy's screams as she struggled to escape. _

_Then, a paw was placed over her throat, pressing down over her airway. Midnight blue eyes widened in panic as her air supply was cut off, Crystal's crazed black eyes boring into hers. _

Ivy woke up with a start. She had never had a worse dream in her life. She fought to regain her breath, gulping in air. Who was the Crystal impersonator? She didn't have time to wonder; dawn wasn't far off, and she had to get to camp before the cats began to wake up.

Life-changing decision and important guesses could wait. She needed to sleep.

**Well that was kinda short, BUT I'm pretty sure you like it. Scary stuff do be happening tho... Review! Who do you think is impersonating Crystal? Do you think she'll come back? Or is nothing what it seems?**

**I forgot the disclaimer last time, so here it is!**

**Disclaimer:**

**Sky: I know what you're going to say.**

**Crystalshine: Oh yeah? Prove it.**

**Sky: You're making me the best fighter in the Trainees' den!**

**Crystalshine: *facepalm***

**Sky: What?**

**Crystalshine: Say. The. Disclaimer. Before. I. Blow. Your. Camp. The. [censored]. Up.**

**Sky: Woah calm down. She owns everything but the world of this and the Clans and blah blah.**

**Crystalshine: I've seen better. But I have to go so I'll let you off. This time. **

**REVIEW! Should Ivy leave the Blood to join the Clans, giving up possible future greatness and risking death? Or should she stay? What does the fake Crystal mean about the darkness between the stars? WHO is the fake Crystal? **

**Stuff gets really interesting in this chapter, is it moving too fast tho?**

**Oof, I forgot to say, isn't it familiar, someone getting choked? RIP George Floyd, the world is a mess. **

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW or fake Crystal will get you, and why is there always a threat at the end of this now?)**


	31. Chapter 31

**Hey people! Don't kill me but this is a chapter where we don't learn anything. Apart from the fact that Scar's got limited patience. **

**Chapter!**

_Chapter 31 _

_Ivy ran back to camp, _swift as a stream and silent as a shadow, loping along neatly, her mind a jumbled mess. Too much information in one night - too many terrible things. And more to come. She felt it.

Cloud - Flame - Heronpaw - Crystal... Thoughts wilder and wilder, theories crazier and crazier, what had happened? What was happening?

_And, worst of all, what will happen?_

Something was watching her again, eyes burning into her back, trailing a frosty shiver down her spine. It wasn't just an impression, paranoia. She was being observed, the felt hot and cold at the same time, this was too much to take in, she was going to burst. She picked up her pace, faster and faster until she was hurtling through the forest erratically, stumbling on rocks and crashing into bushes.

She observer was following her, not bothering to stay silent anymore, cracking leaves under its paws. She was being chased, more than observed, now. She needed to reach the camp, whatever was following her wouldn't dare attack in a clearing full of cats.

Her heartbeat was irregular, speeding up, her breathing fast and shallow, her mind racing. If she turned around to fight, who knew what she would find? Her only option was running, but she was slowing down, her panic robbing her of technique and stamina.

Now she was grateful for the lightening sky, she could see where she was going, though haste tripped her paws and made her crash and slip into trees.

Her pursuer was gaining on her, seeming to know that safety for Ivy wasn't far away.

_Wait._

_Why are there two sets of pawsteps?_

Terror was catching up on her, but she needed a cool head and a level mind to get out of this. Two. She'd been sure… So sure that she was only being chased by one threat.

So close to camp now, so close to safety, so close to help. Now more confident, she risked a glance behind her, so fast that she only saw a gleaming bright orange pelt... a fox? There wasn't enough information to be sure, but what she was certain of was that there was just one. But she could still hear the second set of pawfalls.

She didn't know what was going on, but she didn't intend to stay and find out. A satisfied curiosity wasn't worth getting her pelt ripped off.

As she approached the camp, she began to think. If she just burst into the clearing like that, everycat would know she'd been out alone at night, without permission; that couldn't happen. She'd have to go around the whole camp to reach the entrance, a space under the camp walls, that she used to sneak out.

She cursed under her breath. Her legs felt like they were about to collapse, her lungs were on the brink of exploding. She didn't have time to go all the way around.

But, suddenly, she heard the pawsteps behind her retreating, veering off to the side and disappearing amongst the other sounds of the early dawn. Puzzled, she glanced behind her. Her pursuer had given up!

Maybe it smelled all the other cats nearby?

Whatever the case, Ivy had never been more glad to see the fern and bramble walls of the camp. She slowed to a quiet trot and went peacefully around to the secret exit, slipping into the Trainees' den unnoticed, and crashed into her nest gratefully, knowing that she had very little time until Scar woke her for Training.

She was too tired to notice anything... strange. She just slept.

She was woken up by her irritated Teacher.

"Ivy," Scar growled loudly, "I told you to meet me at the training clearing today at dawn!"

_Oh no. _She'd completely forgotten about that! He was mad now, she could expect harder training and harsher criticism._ Just great._

The den was empty, and, when she got out on a very annoyed Scar's tail, the sun blinded her. She wanted to cuss but that wasn't how she'd been brought up. The sun was high in the sky. It was closer to sunpeak than dawn. This couldn't get any worse.

Apparently, it could. It was a blazingly hot day, much hotter than she liked them, her fur felt heavy and stifling, the nice breeze that had graced the night had disappeared. Her pads were burning from the dry, earthy ground of the camp clearing. She wished she could rush back into the shade of her den, but even though Scar was one of the more patient cats in the Blood, he had his limits, and she had already crossed them. She didn't put it past him to get very, _very _angry.

"Are we still hunting?" Ivy asked timidly, keeping her head down. She didn't like to do that or to speak in such a meek voice, but she did.

"Yes," Scar was still obviously mad about being kept waiting. "Then, directly after that, battle training."

"But I didn't eat!" The young she-cat protested.

"That's your punishment," he snarled, making her jump, "Now don't give me the whiny voice or the cutie eyes, it doesn't work with me."

Ivy felt embarrassed. She'd actually been about to try the big blue eyes trick on him. She followed him silently, not coming up with anything to say, her stomach already feeling empty.

This was going to be a terrible day.

**Well, poor Ivy for that last part. I wanted to show that Scar may be rather nice, but he's still a Blood cat, after all, even though he's pretty nice by comparison. **

**Today I will not forget the disclaimer!**

**Crystalshine: Cloud, say the disclaimer**

**Cloud: bit too late for that don't you think**

**Crystalshine: just say it I have no patience anymore**

**Cystalshine: ...**

**Crystalshine: I lost it all when I went to StarClan to rant because I was bored**

**Crystalshine: never again**

**Cloud: well get someone else, sorry, I'm busy *leaves***

**Crystalshine: oh, ok, you're bus - wait, no how can you be busy you're dead**

**Crystalshine: CoMe BaCk**

**Crystalshine: well since I don't have the patience to deal with _yet another _of my annoying characters so I'll get someone else who'll do it without complaining *throws death glare at Ivy and Slick and Scar and everyone else***

**The special guest: Mimine! Ya I have to bring her in when my patience goes boom and there's nothing left**

**Mimine: Crystalshine doesn't own the Warriors books or the Warriors world, but she owns the plot and her characters!**

**Crystalshine: don't you just love how she makes it sound like I own stuff wow lol. Anyway, if I did own Warriors, the names wouldn't all be weird (_Sneezecloud? Hollytuft? Twigbranch? _I'm sorry, what?)**

**See y'all next chapter! Review if you think it wasn't an actual fox chasing Ivy. Favourite/follow if you do.**

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**~Crystalshine of LightClan (REVIEW or I swear Hawkfrost will come and smirk at you. You'll have nightmares for weeks)**


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